Filet Mignon with Béarnaise sauce ヒレステーキバーネィソース添え

We do not eat this type of dinner often but we decided to have filet mignon with Béarnaise sauce and also opened a bottle of 2010 Joseph Phelps Insignia for the evening.



As sides, my wife made oven fried potatoes and sautéed  green beans and snow peas.



I could do without Béarnaise sauce but this is my wife's favorite sauces. Diversion alert: My wife told me about the culinary adventure she had solo in her youth at a 3 star restaurant in Paris. Although she studied French for many years she had no culinary vocabulary (the focus of her training was on the vocabulary that would enable her to discuss literature or political and economic issues in international academic/diplomatic circles), she  found herself quite adrift when faced with a French menu. That evening she spied something called rognon d'agneau avec Béarnaise. She didn’t know what rognon meant but she knew d’agneau meant lamb which she loved and, of course, she really liked Béarnaise so she ordered the dish. Not only that, but as a true French aficionado, she ordered it “bleu” or rare.  She smelled the stench the minute it emerged from the kitchen. They placed it in front of her bleeding all over the plate and reeking of urine.  She tentatively cut into it wondering what part of the lamb she was facing when she noticed the two waiters standing over in the corner snickering at her.  After several mouthfuls it dawned on her; she was eating basically raw lamb kidney! The only thing she could eat on the plate was the small container of béarnaise sauce which she licked clean. (Being a 3 star restaurant the sauce was pretty good). Now she does not enter a French restaurant without her French/English dictionary in tow.

I first salted the filet mignon and left them in the refrigerator uncovered for several hours (sort of a quick dry aging) and took them out 30 minutes before cooking. I seasoned with fresh ground black pepper and seared them (below). I finished cooking them in a 400F oven for 6 minutes for medium-rare.

For the Béarnaise sauce

1 stick unsalted butter, cut into 1/2" cubes

1 tablespoons minced shallots

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 tablespoons Champagne vinegar or white wine vinegar ( I used rice vinegar)

1 large egg yolks

1/2 tablespoon finely chopped fresh tarragon

In the top pan of the double boiler directly on medium flame, I added a thin pat of butter and sautéed the shallot until it was semitransparent. I added vinegar, salt and pepper and reduced it close to half. I let it cool down off heat and then placed the top pan over the bottom part of the double boiler which had water in it at a gentle simmer. I added an egg yolk and whisked until frothy. I added tarragon and small cubes of butter and kept whisking until the sauce reached the proper consistency. (below, I did not use the entire stick of butter). I tasted and adjusted the seasoning as needed.

The sauce was a bit thicker than I intended but it tasted great (with this much butter and egg yolks, better be good). My wife wanted to save the small amount of remaining sauce but, of cause, it breaks if reheated after refrigeration.

Insignia is such an elegant California red. Some years ago, we visited the Joseph Phelps Vineyard. As a preferred customer, we tasted wines with Riedel glasses that they provided for the experience. After tasting, we got nice cheeses, sausages and baguette from a fancy grocery store in Calistoga and went back to the winery. We got a bottle of Insignia and two Riedel glasses and had a wonderful lunch at a picnic table under the large oak tree overlooking the vineyard. That is one of the most wonderful memories. We are still J-P wine club member and get an occasional shipment from them.

Insignia is not a candy wine but such a classic wine, to us, it is what the best Bordeaux wine should have tasted like i.e. without the funk.

We could not finish the steak but enjoyed our dinner and wine.

PD Lebanon Bologna roll-up レバノンボロニャロールアップ

This is continuation of the Pennsylvania Dutch Lebanon Bologna saga. After making sandwiches, my wife made this snack several times. It goes so well with red wine. She said it was a classic PA Dutch snack. It is very simple to make and tastes great, although may not be good for you.



I am not sure, but I suspect, my wife did not enjoyed this with wine as a child.



It is rather simple to make. It is usually made with Philadelphia cream cheese (of course). This time, however, my wife used "cream cheese spread". We like the one with onion and chives. Just smear the cream cheese spread on one side of the bologna and roll it up, then cut into small tubes. If you wrap the rolls with a plastic wrap and refrigerate, it could probably be cut more neatly but it will taste the same. We tried this with both the sweet and the regular bologna and I have to say that although both taste good we much prefer the sweet variety.

This is a good snack for Cabernet. The bologna has nice smokey note with some sweetness, particularly if we use the sweet variety.

Pa Dutch Lebanon Bologna sandwich ペンシルヴァニアダッチ、レバノンボロニアサンド

I mentioned several times that, although my wife is not Pennsylvania Dutch, she grew up in Pennsylvania Dutch country predominated primarily by Mennonites. Her childhood food memories have a large PA Dutch food component.

This time, as she was browsing through the many catalogs we receive, especially around Christmas she found "Pennsylvania Dutch Sweet Lebanon Bologna" in the Vermont Country Store catalog. She said she had not tasted this since her childhood and promptly ordered it. In her excitement she decided to share her find with her siblings who also live far away from PA Dutch country. So she ordered some for them too. When it arrived, she told me I just had to try this traditional (so I was told) sandwich featuring the bologna on pumpernickel bread.



Since we do not have traditional "Bread and Butter" pickles, she used my Japanese-style cucumber pickles.



Here is how my wife made her beloved sandwich from her childhood. First, she has to use Pa-Dutch style Lebanon (which is named after a county called Lebanon, PA, not the country located in the middle east) Bologna (#1). She is particularly fond of  a "sweet" variety shown here. Second, the bread has to be Pumpernickel bread. She lightly toasted it and let it cool down before assembling (#2) with sharp cheddar cheese slices and pickled cucumber. Since we did not have "Bread and Butter" cucumber pickles, she substituted with my Japanese-style pickled cucumber (#2)



The bread slices were generously smeared with mayo and "two" slices (I said one and half will cover the bread but was told that you do not do one and half) of the Lebanon Bologna were placed (#3). Slices of cheddar cheese and pickled cucumber went next (#4). This was capped by another slice of the Pumpernickel (with mayo smeared as well) and cut in half and served (First two pictures).

This was a rather nice sandwich. I have to admit it has a pleasant unique taste which I have never had before. My wife was in heaven. Beer anyone?

P.S. We have a funny follow-up. My wife somehow imagined that she would receive a "log" of Bologna especially as it was rather pricey but she received two 8oz packages (which was exactly as listed in the catalog). The next time I went to the local grocery store I was curious to see if  they just might carry the Lebanon bologna my wife just bought or something similar. I looked and immediately I found the very same packages of Lebanon Bologna by Seltzer's and it was orders of magnitude cheaper even excluding the shipping cost than what my wife had paid. We are sure this has been available all along but we never looked for it. My wife was a bit chagrined particularly when she took into account the additional expenses she incurred by sending it to her sibs. We had a good laugh nonetheless. She is actually glad to discover that she can have 10 packages from the local grocery store for the cost of one mail order any time she wants.

Sous vide filet mignon

We heard that sous vide is the best way to cook a perfect steak. I have also heard "you can hold the steak at the desired doneness for a long time in sous vide without worrying about over cooking”. So, with high expectations, we tried sous vide filet mignon.

It appears that there are two methods of doing this. One is to cook the steaks in the sous vide first and them sear them. Another is to sear the steaks first and then sous vide them. With this method, the steaks are briefly seared again after coming out of the sous vide in order to “refresh” the crust. The advantage of the second method is that the first searing occurs when the meat is cold and uncooked which helps the searing process and cooks only the surface. In the first method, after the meat is sous vide cooked, the meat is warm and to developed enough crust, wider layers of over cooked meat will develop under the curst. I am not sure if this two methods make a big difference. But I decided to try the second method. I got two USDA prime filet mignons.

We served the steak with my wife’s oven fried potato, haricot verts (first blanched and then sautéed in garlic and butter). We could have done a better presentation (particularly with that blob of catsup) but it is too late.

I did the first searing using a small amount of vegetable oil on high heat for 30 seconds each sides. The filets came out directly from the refrigerator. After blotting off any juice/moisture, I vacuum sealed it (#1) using the edge type vacuum sealer. Towards the end of the vacuum sealing, some moisture got sucked out and the vacuum was not as tight as when I vacuum sealed dry items. Nonetheless it made a reasonable vacuum seal. Apparently if you use a “chamber” vacuum sealer, you can vacuum seal wet items better but that type of equipment is beyond my reach. For medium-rare, I set my ANOVA sous vide machine to 56C (133F) based on this recipe (#2). The thickest filet mignon was about 1.5 inches, so it should take about 90 minutes to cook. I set it to 3 hours instead, since that would put us at the right time for dinner. Also I trusted what I read that the steaks could be held for up to 6-8 hours without over cooking or deterioration of flavor.


After the steaks were cooked in the sous vide, I finished them by searing a second time. This time I used butter and sprigs of fresh thyme on high heat for 10-15 seconds each side basting with melted butter (#3). I then seasoned them with Kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper. As you can see the nearly entire cut surface is nicely rosy pink with a very thin crust (#4). No over cooked surface areas or undercook center.

We think sous vide steak is much better than any we have tried. I usually cook steak by keeping the steak out at room temperature for 15-20 minutes and then searing it in a hot frying pan and finishing in the oven. This method is not bad but, definitely, produces an overcooked surface area and undercooked center even after resting the steak for 10 minutes.

This filet mignon was very tender with a nice crust but no bloody juice came out. The thyme was from our herb garden but we did not taste much of thyme flavor in the steak. Besides being a perfect steak, I think, the sous vide method is perfect for cooking steaks for a company dinner. You just hold the steaks in the sous vide until serving and quickly refresh the crust and serve. It is much easier than a frying-pan-to-oven method.  The only shortcoming may be that it is not possible to accommodate different doneness unless you have more than one sous vide machine.

Party platters from Tako Grill タコグリルからのパーティープラター

On our last trip to Japan we, of course, visited my mother. We offered to take my mother and her two sisters (my aunts) out for lunch, but she said it was easier and more relaxing if we just stayed in and had the get-together at the house. My mother then produced a flyer she had just received from a chain sushi restaurant called "Kaisen-maru" 海鮮丸. Although she had not tried them before, she suggested that we order a sushi platter for our “aunts’ luncheon party. Just one phone call and a few hours later, a very polite and professional young man appeared at the front door with a large sushi platter and an order of chawanmushi 茶碗蒸し(still warm). (The choice of '”side” was miso soup or chawanmushi). He collected the money (a very reasonable price) and said "please leave the empty sushi-oke and bowls outside the front door when you finish". He added that he would come back later and collect them; which he did--they quietly disappeared soon after we put them out. The degree of service was just amazing (the sushi came in real "sushi-oke" 寿司桶 not a disposable plastic plate and the chawanmushi came in real porcelain bowls). My mother made miso soup using baby clams which happened to be one of my Aunt’s absolute favorite. The quality of sushi was pretty good considering it was a delivery from a chain sushi restaurant. We had a quite a feast and a very relaxing good time.

March is a busy birthday month for us with 3 to celebrate including our best friends. Using the Aunt’s party as a prototype my wife suggested we order a sushi platter from our Tako Grill for a “March Birthday” party. To “increase my enjoyment and relaxation” my wife forbade me from cooking for the occasion.  So we ordered a sushi platter from Tako Grill.

Since one of the guests was a vegetarian, I asked Mr Segawa of Tako Grill to include more vegetable rolls than usual.

It was very nicely presented and even the "gari" ginger was arranged like a yellow rose. California roll in the front and "kankyou" maki かんぴょう巻き (vegetarian)  in the back (above picture).

As you can see, sushi included tuna, yellow tail, flounder, eel, mackerel, salmon roe, California roll and few interesting vegetarian rolls. In addition to the sushi platter, we also asked Mr. Segawa to prepare Japanese-style appetizers.

The above is konnyaku dengaku (vegetarian) こんにゃくの田楽; the darker one are with peanuts sauce and the lighter ones (right) is more traditional miso sauce.

In the back, these are very nice and crispy chicken kara-age 鳥の唐揚げ, the front right are  pork and onion kushiage 串揚げ and the front left are grilled marinated cubed steak サイコロステーキの串焼き. Mr Segawa also gave us asparagus dressed in tofu dressing (vegetarian) アスパラの白和え, which I forgot to take a picture.

As a desert, my wife ordered a dozen cupcakes on the internet from Georgetown Cupcake for pick-up at the Bethesda store. I am not sure why cupcakes are so popular now-a-days but Georgetown cupcake appears to have started this trend. My wife said she has even seen a pink truck labeled Curb-side cupcakes selling cupcakes in downtown DC and people line up on the side walk to buy them. When we arrived at the store for pick-up, the line extended out of the store and half-way down the block. This was despite a very heavy rain.



Everything was wonderful. The chicken, pork and steak were flavorful—the chicken especially crispy. The vegetarian rolls were creative and plentiful. Even the non-vegetarians were satisfied.  We all had a wonderful time and was indeed the best birthday party ever.

Disclaimer: Although Tako Grill has its party platters including sushi, rolls, and appetizers, the platter shown here included some personal modifications Mr. Segawa made for us that may not be available on the usual menu.  

Molded or pressed "steak" sushi ステーキの押し寿司

The last time I made pressed sushi or "oshizushi" 押し寿司, I warned that my wife was interested in making oshizushi that represented “outside-the-box” thinking. It took a long time but here is one of those attempts. My wife came up with the idea and I executed it. I used leftover flat iron steak to make this “meat” sushi.


We are not sure we liked this. I may have to work on the different variations. In addition to steak,

I also layered perilla leaves and a thin omelet made from 4 egg yolks. Only reason I made this rather deadly but bright yellow omelet was because my wife made quick bread which required egg whites making 4 left over yolks (see picture below).
Rice: I made sushi rice using sushi vinegar from the bottle.
Steak: I thinly sliced medium rare flat iron steaks. I marinated this in a mixture of grated garlic and soy sauce for a few hours. On hindsight, this may have made the taste of the meat too strong.
Omelet: I just scrambled the 4 left over egg yolks, seasoned with a bit of sugar and salt. Using my square frying pan on a very low flame and with a lid, I cooked it slowly for 5 minutes until the surface was dry.

Using the mold for oshizushi, I first put in a few layers of steak slices (marinade squeezed out), then perilla leaves, followed by the omelet cut to fit the mold. I added the sushi rice and pressed it firmly.  After cutting it to small pieces, I garnished it with white roasted sesame seeds and a side of pickled ginger.

This is certainly edible but we did not particularly care for it. The meat seemed to over power the subtle flavor of the vinegared rice. Maybe I should not marinate the steak. I suggested we could make this type of sushi with “luncheon meat” (Japanese euphemism for “Spam” the magic pork product from Hormel) but that was immediately voted down.

Beef "Yakitori" 牛肉ステーキの焼き鳥

Spring is the best season in the Washington DC area. In addition to all the beautiful flowers and cool sunny weather there are no mosquitoes. This enables us to have a barbecue outside without become a meal ourselves for these pesky insects. During this mosquito free interlude we really enjoy sitting outside and doing “Yakitori” style cooking. This is one such occasion. We did not plan to do Yakitori but it was such a nice sunny day and when we checked the fridge we saw we had some ingredients that could be grilled so we did it on a whim. Instead of the usual chicken or pork, we grilled New York strip steak and also cooked mushrooms two ways.
We have this yakitori grill from Japan which was purchased from a New York company “Korin 光琳.  Given the ingredients I had, I knew I would not be grilling for a long time so I put just enough lump charcoal in the chimney starter to cover the bottom 1/3 of the grill (below left). Since it is still early spring, it gets a bit chilly when the sun goes down, so we wheeled out the infra-red outside heater which was very effective in keeping us warm and providing a golden ambient light while we cooked (below right).

Rather than grilling steak in usual way i.e. as one big piece, I trimmed the fat cap and cut it into cubes and skewered them (below, left). I seasoned it with salt and pepper. This was one American size serving of New York strip steak but perfect for two of us.

I also had a box of assorted shimeji (both white and brown) as well as Royal trumpet mushrooms). I cooked the shimeji mushroom with miso and butter with the addition of sliced onion in an aluminum foil pouch as before (below right).

I just tore the trumpet mushroom in half lengthwise, coated with olive oil, seasoned with salt and pepper and put on a skewer. I grilled the pouch of mushrooms in miso, steak cubes, and royal trumpet mushrooms. As you can see all the trees were pushing new-growth leaves (below, right upper).

Once the beef, royal trumpet mushrooms (above, left) and shimeji with miso and butter in a packet (above, right) were done all I needed to do was to make grilled rice balls (below). I used the leftover miso sauce on the bottom of the mushroom packet which worked very well. As I mentioned before, this is the best way to make the perfect grilled rice ball. All the surfaces had a nice savory crust. This can only be accomplished by slow patient cooking on a hot charcoal fire.

Japanese often grill beef in small pieces such as in “Yakiniku” 焼肉 or “Dice” steak or “Saikoro steak” さいころステーキ in which cubes of steak are grilled. What I made is a sort of hybrid between them. The cubes increase the ratio of caramelized surface crust to tender meat inside. I think this gives the meat more flavor and dimension than when it is cooked as one large piece. The cubes were small enough that we (at least I)  could use only chop sticks to eat them. Although this was US prime not “Wagyu”, this was quite good.

New Year's Eve 大晦日

Usually we get good sashimi items for Catalina offshore products for new year's eve. This year, they did not have any good tuna or sea urchin. We had to do without them on the new year's eve. Since I bought the half filet of salmon (over 4 lb), even after making salmon kelp rolls as well as "Russian" marinated salmon, we had a good amount of  salmon left including the skin. So no sashimi this time and    we had salmon and filet mignon.

When I made salmon kelp rolls, I needed to trim the salmon to make it even square  logs. Using these trimmings  I made salmon cakes. Since some of the pieces were still large chunks, I finely minced the half of the salmon trimmings finely (which binds the other ingredients) and the remaining cut into small cubes. Other ingredients are finely chopped onion and celery (sautéed in butter, seasoned with sat ad pepper and cooled), finely grated zest of lemon, finely chopped parsley,  Japanese Panko bread crumbs,   Dijon mustard, mayonnaise and seasoned with salt and pepper. I then made a small flat cakes and  fried them with a bit of olive oil.


Using the more intact portions of the salmon left, I made cubes of teriyaki style salmon with separately cook crispy salmon skin. I just seared all surfaces of the salmon cubes and then braised in a mixture of sake, mirin and soy sauce (1:1:2 ratio) until liquid evaporate and sauce became somewhat thick.

Finally, we had a filet mignon, stuffing (re-heated in small ramekin with scripy bacon), and apple-blackend Brussels sprouts salad. Baked (blacken) brussels sprouts were sliced, red seedless grapes halved, apple (we used Fuji), skinned and cubed dressed in honey mustard dressing garnished with toasted walnuts. I made a quick sauce by degrazing the pan with port wine, reduce it in half. I then added balsamic vinegar and reduce it a bit and finished with several pats of butter.

For libation, we had NV Philippe Prie Brut with cheeses and salmons (the picture taken morning after). For us, differences in the quality of champagnes are very subtle after a certain price point but this was a quite nice one. Then with steak, we switched to 2008 Buccella Merlot . This is a quite amazing red! We really enjoyed this with filet mignon.


We managed to stay up until mid-night to see the ball to drop in on TV.

Shio-koji marinated flat iron steak フラットアイアンステーキの塩麴焼き

This is the second try on marinating meat in shio-koji. I thought about using skirt steak but settled on flat iron steak which is flavorful but not known for being tender. I thought this would be a good cut to try the effect of shio-koji marination.

I divided the flat iron steak into two equal pieces; one was seasoned with just salt and pepper and the other marinated in shio-koji. This time I marinated the steak for only one hour before cooking since we thought the shio-koji marinated chicken tenderloin was perhaps “over marinated”.

In the picture below, the regular steak is on the left and the shio-koji marinated steak is on the right.


I cooked both pieces of steak in an identical fashion in the same pan (the left is shio-koji marinated and the right just salt and pepper in the picture below). I seared the surface for a few minutes each and finished it in a 400F oven for 5 minutes.

After I let them rest for a few minutes, I sliced both pieces and served side-by-side with my wife’s oven “fried” potatoes (The first picture). I could have improved on the presentation but I was anxious to taste them. As you can see, although both pieces of steak were cooked identically, the shio-koji marinated steak on the right of the first picture), was less pink and looked more done.

On tasting, the result was the same as the chicken tenderloin. The consistency of shio-koji marinated steak was a bit weird. Again, the steak developed a doughy consistency. We would not call this more “tender” just doughy. We much preferred the salt and peppered piece which was done perfectly in medium rare.

Beef stroganoff with bamboo shoot 竹の子入りビーフストロガノフ

This is a hybrid Western-Japanese dish that I concocted one evening. I had frozen Sukiyaki beef in our freezer which I decided to use before it got any more freezer burned than it already was. Instead of regular Sukiyaki すき焼き, I used about 1/3 for beef negimaki ねぎ巻き or beef scallion rolls. I suggested several dishes to my wife which were essentially Sukiyaki-like dishes to use up  the remainder of the beef. She challenged me to think outside the box and come up with something different. I also found a package of vacuum packed boiled bamboo shoots in the refrigerator which I bought few month ago.  This is what I came up with.

I was thinking of some kind of stir fried dish. This dish had morphed during the cooking since I changed my mind midway through but the end result was something akin to beef stroganoff.

Beef: This was what left of the sukiyaki meat. It was thinly sliced and previously frozen. I thawed it completely in the refrigerator over night (about 300 grams or about 10 oz). I seasoned it with soy sauce (1 tbs), mirin (1 tbs), and sake (1 tbs) I also mixed in potato starch or katakuriko 片栗粉.

Bamboo shoot: I quartered the bamboo shoot along the length and washed away the white chalky substance from the inside of the bamboo shoot. I then thinly sliced crosswise.

Onion: I had leftover onion (small, half) which I sliced into thin strips.

I added light olive oil to a frying pan on medium flame and sautéed the onion until soft. I then added the seasoned beef and cooked until the color changed. Next I added the bamboo shoot and sautéed for one more minute. Then I thought the seasoning was too close to Sukiyaki. I added Worchester sauce (2 tsp), chicken broth (3-4 tbs) and added florets of broccoli. I stirred and put on a tight fitting lid and let it braise/steam for 2-3 minutes. When I removed the lid, because of the potato starch, the sauce/liquid was slightly thickened. I added cream (3-4 tbs) and reduced it further to make a relatively thick sauce. I tasted it and adjusted the seasoning with salt and black pepper.

Since I did not have cooked rice or noodles, I just served this as is as a small drinking snack. Although it tasted OK, unfortunately, the broccoli was too crunchy for my wife’s taste. I get some points, however, for comeing up with this unique dish. The texture contrast of the beef and bamboo shoot and an interesting hybrid taste of the sauce were OK, however, I think, I will not make this dish again. I like a more traditional Japanese style seasoning (sweet and salty or “ama-kara” 甘辛) for thinly sliced beef.

Beef scallion rolls 葱巻き

This is a classic home cooked dish, especially for bento boxes, as well as an Izakaya dish. It is also a very common item you will find in American Japanese restaurants. Since I had thinly sliced frozen beef for sukiyaki (#2 in the second picture) and it would not improve with time, I decided the time had come to thaw it.

Rolling thinly sliced meat, either beef or pork, around a core of vegetables or any cylindrical edible object (even a hotdog) is a very common Japanese technique.

It so happened that we were short of any vegetables except scallion so I made this scallion roll. The amounts are for three rolls perfect for two small servings (Picture above).

Scallion: I removed the outer layer, the root ends and green part of about a dozen scallions (#1).

Beef: This was thinly sliced beef for sukiyaki (frozen). I used 2-3 slices per roll depending on the integrity and size of the beef slice and 3-4 scallions in the center and made three rolls (#3).
With the seam side down, I seared the meat using a non-stick frying pan on medium flame with a small amount of oil (I used light olive oil) (#4). I seared all four sides and then added the seasoning.

Seasoning: This could be any store bought teriyaki-style sauce. I did not want to make it sweet so I used an equal amount of sake (2 tbs) and concentrated noodle sauce or “mentusyu” from the bottle (2 tbs). You could use mirin instead of sake to make it more classic teriyaki flavor (i.e. sweet). (#5).

I put a tightly fitting lid on the pan and steam/braised it for few minutes (#5). When the sauce was reduced, I remove the lid and moved the pan back and forth to roll the beef scallion rolls in the sauce to completely coat them(#6).

I sliced one roll into 4 pieces and served (the first picture). This is a rather mundane dish but my wife really liked it. If available, I would have used “Tokyo scallion” or “Naganegi” 長葱 but multiples of regular scallions is just fine and probably much more tender.

Meatloaf hash ミートローフハッシュ

I keep posting leftover dishes. This one is also made from leftover meatloaf my wife made one day. "Hash", most commonly "corned beef hash", is a very popular breakfast dish in American diners. Essentially diced potatoes, meat, and onion fried together in a skillet and often served with eggs and toast. As I said before, any hearty breakfast can be had as a late night snack after drinking to absorb the excess alcohol. Along with German omelet, any variation of hash should be served at any Izakaya in my opinion.

This is for two servings as a breakfast or late night snack.

Meat: Any precooked or cured meat such as corned beef (typically from a tin or you could make it yourself), roast beef, or even sausage (uncooked, out of the casing). Since I had leftover meatloaf that my wife made the other day, I crumbled it and used it. The amount was about two slices worth (about 2 inches thick).

Potato: I microwaved Yukon gold potatoes (2 medium) for about 6 minutes (take care not overcook.  I tested doneness using a bamboo skewer towards the end of the 6 minutes and adjusted the cooking time). While it was hot, I removed the skin (holding the hot potato using a paper towel) and diced.

Onion: I first halved the onion and then sliced it to make thin strips (one medium).

I added olive oil (2 tbs) in a non-stick frying pan (or a seasoned cast iron skillet if you have one) and sautéed the onion for 5-7 minutes on medium heat until soft and edges browned, I then added the diced and cooked potatoes and crumbled meatloaf. After sautéing for one minute or so I seasoned with salt and black pepper. I pressed the hash to the bottom of the pan (picture below) and let it brown for a few minutes and then turned it over using a spatula (in small segments) to brown the other side and make it crusty. I repeated this process several times until a nice brown crust covered most of the hash.

This was a lot of food for us. We did forgo the eggs and served this with Campari tomato (skinned and lightly salted) and pickled okra (from the jar). I garnished it with fresh basil and ketchup. My wife also added slices of smoked cheddar. Althought it did not melt well it tasted good.

Meatloaf ミートローフ

One weekend, my wife, all of the sudden, said, "I would like to make a meatloaf",  just like that. Although it is classic American home cooking, meatloaf does not have a stellar reputation. For many Americans, this is the dish you had as a kid but would prefer not to eat again as an adult. Many remember it as an unsophisticated dry chunk of ground meat that Mom made. My wife claims the meat loaf she ate was not like that. I am not sure what prompted my wife to suggest making a meatloaf, but I didn’t object because “come to think of it, I can post this in my blog”. So, I encouraged her to go ahead with her idea. I even provided her with a recipe I saw at "No Recipes" webpage by Marc Matsumoto. Interestingly this was dubbed as “best” but not “the best” meatloaf.



We made two loaves. So, we doubled the amount from the Marc's original recipe listed below. In addition, she did not make the sauce (the last 4 ingredients) and instead, she used straight ketchup (since that was how she remembered the meatloaf from her childhood). For some crazy reason, rather than buying ground meat, I bought a 3 pound of beef shoulder roast with bone and pork butt roast (about 2 pounds) and hand chopped the meat. In retrospect, this was way too much work. We need a decent meat grinder.

• 1 pound ground beef
• 10 ounces ground pork
• 1/2 medium onion minced
• 2 cloves garlic finely minced
• 1/2 cup panko (Japanese bread crumbs)
• 1.5 ounces Gruyere cheese grated
• 1 large egg
• 1/4 cup whole milk
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 2 teaspoons soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon pimentón smoked paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper to taste
• 5 sprigs fresh thyme stems removed and minced
• 6 ounces thick-cut bacon
• 3 tablespoons ketchup
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• My wife added 1 tbs. of horseradish (because she said that was what was always added to the meat loaf she ate as a kid).

As per the recipe, instead of using a regular loaf pan, we made a free form loaf on a cookie sheet lined with a parchment paper, banded with thick cut bacon as you see below. My wife thought that the bacon was an overkill but she followed the recipe—It was certainly not part of the meatloaves from her childhood.



After cooking for 30 minutes in preheated 350F oven, she smeared ketchup on top and continued baking another 30 minutes (left in the above image). We let it sit for 10 minutes and moved the meatloaf to the cutting board (right in the above image). As you can see a good amount of juice and fat accumulated in the bottom of the pan.

I sliced it and served it with my wife's mashed potato (cooked and mashed small red potatoes, rice vinegar, soy sauce and butter) and oven baked green beans.

The taste? Well, it is not bad at all. According to my wife, however, this is as good as what she remembered eating as a kid but not significantly better. That means either the meatloaf she ate as a kid was indeed a very good one or this one is not necessary the "best" meatloaf. Nevertheless, this was very satisfying. The loaf was not dry and the consistency is pleasantly crumbly with good favor from all the herbs and spices we put in. The all American Heinz ketchup smeared on top was just fine but did not caramelize as much as my wife thought it would. By the way, we did not eat the bacon and will not use it if we ever make meatloaf again.

To circumvent the ill effect of meatloaf and bacon drippings, we had a good young Napa Cabernet from Spring Mountain District. This is a classic Napa cab. Nice nose, good amount of ripe fruit upfront, smooth tannin, and reasonable finish. Nothing wrong about this wine, very youthful and clean. I will give 91.

P.S. We made sandwiches for weekday lunches with this meatloaf. It was very good as a sandwich too. It is also one of those dishes that gets better the next day. We also ate it for dinner as leftovers during the week. We had it one night with a catsup based sauce (mixture of catsup, Worcestershire sauce, red wine and Dijon mustard). And one night we had it with tonkatsu sauce with Japanese hot mustard which was also very good.

Beef back rib BBQ on Memorial day 牛バックリブのバーベキュー

On Memorial day, we like to barbecue particularly if the weather allows. We tend to be in a rut and cook whole chickens served with sides of potato and macaroni salads. We have done roast pork, beef, lamb etc and wanted to do something different this year. So we cooked beef back rib this year.
We fired up two Weber kettles. One was used for baking pizzas and the other was used to cook the ribs. Oh, we also made teba gyoza. The answer to my wife’s question how many wings can I prepare and cook one time; twelve! (see below).


I removed the wingtips to save space on the grill. I ended up cooking the teba gyoza in two batches but if we were not cooking the ribs, I could have cooked all 12 at once.  I did not take a picture of the final and cooked teba gyoza but it is the same as before but lacking the handle (i.e. wingtips) to hold onto.

The recipe for the ribs is based on ones listed in the  Weber webpage.

Ribs: I got center back ribs (with 6 ribs). I removed excess fat and rubbed the dry rub below I placed the ribs in the Ziploc bag and refrigerated for 8 hours.

Dry rub: Dried oregano (2 tsp), smoked paprika (2 tsp), dried granulated onion  (2 tsp), brown sugar (1 tsp), kosher salt (1 tsp), and ground black pepper (1 tsp).

Barbecue sauce: Initially I was to use store bought Mango BBQ sauce (which had been given to us sometime ago) but, upon tasting, I decided it was too sweet and my wife decided to make her own BBQ sauce. Here is the recipe my wife made which is a “classic” ketchup based sauce. Her recipe is based on one in “Joy of Cooking” but with her own variations. It is also very similar to the one used in pork spare rib.
For the sauce; Two medium onions were coarsely diced and sauteed in a small amount of olive oil until soft and caramerized (15-20 minutes). One cup of ketchup was added to the pan and cooked, scraping the bits left behind from cooking the onions, until the sugar in the ketchup was caramelized (the color will change from red to more dull brownish color). Combine, the onion and the ketchup in a sauce pan with a mixture of rice vinegar (2 tbs), water (1/2 cup), lemon (1/4 cup), paprika powder (1/2 tsp), Worcestershire sauce ( 1 tbs), salt (1 tsp), brown sugar (1 tbs) and mustard (1 tbs.) and simmer for about 15 minutes. I added about ½ cup of red wine (since we did not have wine which did not pass our Wednesday wine drinkability criteria - lowest-, we used one we will be drinking in the near future) to the sauce and simmered it for 5-6 minutes and kept it warm.

I took the ribs from the refrigerator 30 minutes before cooking to come to room temperature. I prepared the grill for indirect heat and added soaked apple wood chips for smoking. Using the direct heat part of the grill, I seared both side 5-6 minutes each. I then transfer the ribs (I had to cut it in half) to a Pyrex baking dish and poured the wine/BBQ sauce mixture over the ribs and covered it tightly with aluminium foil. I placed it in the indirect heart area and further cooked it for 1 more hour (see picture below).

As you can see the sauce reduced and the meat was almost coming off the bones. It is usual to serve it with the bone on, but the meat just came of the bone as I was serving. So I just served the meat sans (without) bone (the first picture).

We are not connoisseurs of BBQ as they are in the South and Texas, but we thought these were mighty good ribs with BBQ sauce. The sauce; caramelized with the juice from the meat was just the right consistency--ooey-gooey, mildly smokey sweet and sour. The meat had a nice crust and melted in your mouth. We had our usual macaroni salad (Memorial day would not be Memorial day without that) with the addition of black bean corn salad. But this combined with the pizza, and the chicken wings--which had to be tasted as they came off the grill, of course, was way too much food.

As and antidote/libation, we chose shiraz from Maclaren valley, Australia called Clarendon Hills McLaren Valley Piggott Range Vineyard, Syrah 2005. This is a very nice heavy duty shiraz. It stood up against the strong flavorof the BBQed ribs. This one got 97 from Wine Advocate.

97 Points - Wine Advocate

Deep crimson in color with mineral notes, violets, spice box, black pepper, espresso, smoked game, and blueberry aromatics. Deceivingly opulent, it has enough structure to merit 8-10 years of cellaring and should make old bones. Drink it through 2035."

American Wagyu Tataki アメリカン和牛のたたき風

This is another padding post. This is a dish made from the Wagyu steak leftovers we had. We ate a bit less than half as steak on the day we cooked it. The next day we ate 1/4, thinly sliced with grated daikon and ponzu sauce. We really do not like to eat just one thing to fill us up. So we are able to stretch the steak this way. The reaming 1/4 I served as a more traditional "tataki" on the third day.

I first sliced the remaining steak thinly. Since the meat was cold, the marbling is very visible. In a bowl, I put the thinly sliced steak, grated garlic (1/3 tsp) and grated ginger root (1/3 tsp) and soy sauce (1/2 tsp) and mixed it well. I let it sit for a few minutes and then spread the pieces on a plate. I garnished it with chopped scallion, thinly sliced, fried garlic, and roasted white sesame seeds.

To me, cold Wagyu beef taste better than eating it as a steak. The fat portion is not as oily or strong but gives a much nicer mouth feel. Compared to American prime beef which is much leaner, Wagyu is much better for this type of tataki preparation. But for a regular steak, I may even prefer leaner American beef.

American Wagyu tataki with grated daikon and ponzu sauce アメリカ和牛のたたきポン酢大根おろし和え

This is actually leftovers from the Wagyu steak we had. When the steak was cooked the marbled fat layer became transparent and sort of disappeared but when the steak get cold, the marbling reappears as white streaks. Although this was not a true "Tataki" preparation, this Wagyu New York Strip steak cooked medium rare is really close. So the next day, I sliced the steak paper thin and served it as though it was beef tataki*.

Dressing: I grated diakon (about 1/4 cup), squeezed out the excess moisture and added ponzu shouyu sauce (from the bottle) and 7 flavor Japanese red pepper powder 七味唐辛子 and mixed. The amount of ponzu is as much as grated diakon can absorb.

I garnished this with thin slices of scallion.

Ponzu and grated diakon really cut the fat of the beef and makes this dish. Because of the acidity of the ponzu, sake will be the best bet. We still have more than 1/4 of the Wagyu stake left. I can make something else.

*Tataki: "Tataki" preparation can mean two totally different Japanese cooking techniques. The first is to chop up raw fish as in "Aji-no-tataki" 鰺のたたき. The second is to sear only the surface of the fish or meat and keep the center raw such as in "Katsuo-no-tataki" 鰹のたたき. Beef can be prepared this latter way.

American Wagyu New York strip steak アメリカ和牛のニューヨークストリップステーキ

Wagyu 和牛 is a breed of cattle developed in Japan (As I understand it they are a cross between Japanese native and western cattle. Reportedly, only a few pure native Japanse cattle remain in Kagoshima 鹿児島 and Yamaguchi 山口 prefectures). The breed was selected for its highly marbled meat. To us, classic Japanese Wagyu beef is too fatty when eaten as a steak but it is considered one of the most prized beef. When eaten raw, it has a mouth feel reminiscent of  fatty tuna but once cooked it tastes a bit too fatty to me. Beef fat has a strong taste to me particularly when in excess (unlike pork fat which can be eaten to any excess as far as I am concerned).  Dependining on the regions of Japan in which a particular breed was developed, it is named, for example, "kobe-gyu"  神戸牛, "Matsuzaka-gyu" 松坂牛 or "Oumi-gyu" 近江牛. Often, this beef is served thinly sliced for grilling (yakiniku 焼肉) or sukiyaki すき焼き.

My niece married into a family of cattle farmers near Sapporo. They raise Wagyu but I was told they mostly raise the cross between Wagyu and black Angus. I learned from my niece and her husband that the wagyu is rather delicate and has to be housed in a barn during the cold snowy season but the cross breed with black Angus is much more robust and can stay outside in the snow and survive (and thrive).

In the U.S., one could get genuine wagyu beef imported from Japan but it is prohibitively expensive (we never tried it). It is not worth it in my book. Instead, like ones raised in my nice's farm, American wagyu (cross between Wagyu and Black Angus) is raised in US and Australia and its meat is widely sold in a gourmet market at a reasonable (relatively speaking) price. The meat is much redder and not as highly marbled compared to genuine Wagyu beef as you can see in the picture below but it is much fattier and marbled than typical American prime or choice beef. The cut I got this time was  New York strip steak and I bought it as one serving. It weighed almost 1lb! (Between two of us we ate only less than half this evening).

I did not do anything special to cook the steak. I first let it warm up to  room temperature and seasoned it with Kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper. Using a small amount of light olive oil, I seared both sides on medium high flame until a nice brow crust was formed (The above image on the right). I finished it in a 350F oven for 8 minutes (for medium rare  as you can see below). I removed the steak from the pan to a plate and covered  loosely with aluminum foil to let it rest for 10 minutes. It was homogeneously pink without the center being totally raw. The marble lines were almost not visible since the fat became semitransparent but it was there.

I served it sliced with the side of oven fried potato. For sauce, I degrazed the pan with sake (4-5 tsp) and reduced it to 1/3 and added soy sauce (1 tsp). I then added 4-5 pats of butter to make an emulsion.  Off heat, I added real wasabi (1/2 tsp) and poured it over the slices of steak (the first picture).

This was certainly a great steak. (Of course, it was perfectly cooked, if I do say so myself). The wasabi flavor did not come through as much as I expected. Is it better than U.S. prime stake? I am not so sure. The oven fried potatos were excellent. They had a crunchy crust and creamy soft inside (my wife's contribution). We were still enjoying the wonderful 2007 Caymus Cabernet Sauvignon with this steak.

Veal Chops with Shiitake Dashi 子牛のチョップのシイタケソース添え

I am digging out old food pictures here. I volunteered for recipe testing over a year ago when Chef Tadashi Ono and Japanese food report fame Harris Salat were preparing the Japanese grill cookbook. I tested a few meat dishes and side dishes. 

I thought this was a rather nice dish. The sauce is nicely earthy with a Japanese touch. Veal chop are not usual cuts of meat I use. I was told that I could blog this after the publication of the cookbook. The book was published sometime ago and I bought a copy myself. Since I am running short of something to post I decide to post this dish.

This is the instruction I received. I did not compare the final recipe with this one.

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Serves 4

For the shiitake dashi:
12 whole dried shiitake mushrooms, about 1/2 ounce
1 cup water
1/2 cup sake
1/2 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons mirin
1 tablespoon corn starch
1 tablespoon water
4 veal chops, about 4 pounds
Salt
Freshly ground pepper

To make the shiitake dashi: Add the shiitake and water to a saucepan and let it soak for 4 hours at room temperature. Transfer the shiitake to a cutting board, without discarding the water in the saucepan, and thinly slice the mushrooms. Return the mushrooms to the liquid in the saucepan. Add the sake, soy sauce and mirin to the saucepan, and bring it to a boil over medium heat. Lower the heat so the liquid simmers, and cook for about 15 minutes, until the liquid reduces by 1/3. Skim off any scum that appears on the surface. While the dashi simmers, mix together the corn starch and water in a small bowl, and set aside. When the dashi has reduced, remove the saucepan from the heat. Add the corn starch mixture, and stir until the dashi thickens. Let the dashi come to room temperature.

Use a meat pounder or mallet, or the side of a heavy knife or cleaver, to pound the veal chop 6 times, to flatten and condense the meat. (Be careful not to strike the bone.) Season with salt and black pepper on all sides of the chops. Slap the sides of the veal with your palm, so the pepper sticks to the meat.

Preheat a grill to medium-hot heat. Grill the chops for about 5 minutes on each side for medium rare. When the chops are done, the bone will stick out, as the meat along it shrinks, and the veal will become richly caramel colored. Test for doneness using the nick and peek method. Let the chops rest for about 3 minutes. Drizzle 2 tablespoons of shiitake dashi over the veal chops, and serve.

Other uses for shiitake dashi: Drizzle over steaks and burgers. The dashi can keep in the refrigerator for 3 weeks, and also freezes well.

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The picture below is just showing the dried mushroom on the left upper image. The quality of dried mushroom could be quite different from brand to brand. I rehydrated the dried mushroom by placing the small plate so that the mushrooms are completely submerged. The right lower image is the final Shiitake dashi sauce. I did not take the picture of pork chops with this sauce on it.

I am trying to remember what this tasted like. When I tasted the sauce by itself, I thought it was too salty and strong. But once it was poured over the cooked veal chops, it was just right amount of saltiness. The sauce added a very nice "umami"-laden mushroom flavor. When I did this, I invited 2 couples (non-Japanese) and asked them to taste and give us feedback. I think this was very well received.