Chicken, navy and green bean curry 白インゲン豆、サヤインゲン入りのチキンカレー

This is my wife’s curry project. This chicken curry is based on the recipe in Madhur Jaffrey’s “Quick and Easy Indian Cooking”. The original recipe is called “Chicken, Red lentils and Green beans in one pot” (or “ek handi ka murgh aur masoor”). Of course due to the ingredients we did not have, this recipe was modified to “Chicken, navy beans and green beans”. We thought this was a quite good curry. We served it over rice with the side of cold cucumber buttermilk soup whch went extremely well.

I added blanched green beans (haricot verts) just before serving (so that they would not become “grey” beans instead of green beans). The navy beans mostly melted into the sauce and made it nicely smooth and thick.

As usual, I will ask my wife to continue. I have to say the numbers of different spices and herbs are quite impressive.

Ingredients:
6 tbs vegetable oil
3 bay leaves
5 whole cloves
1 tsp ground cardamon
2 inch stick of cinnamon
3 onions, roughly chopped
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp garam masala
1 1/2 tbs lemon juice
generous pinch of asafetida
1 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
14 oz can of navy beans
24 oz can of whole plum tomato, stem end removed and crushed
6 chicken thighs (we put them in a pan whole without skinning or deboning. After they are cooked and cooled down we removed the bones)
(Juice from the plum tomatoes reserved to provide added liquid later as the dish cooks)

The picture below shows the line-up of spices and herbs; from left to right are whole cloves, bay leaves, ground cardamon, sticks of cinnamon, turmeric, salt, gram masala, asafetida, cumin seeds, ground cumin, ground coriander, and cayenne pepper.

Among the spices, was garam masala (we use an authentic Indian brand). The asafetida is a little unusual (at least for us). It comes from the rhizome of the ferula plant (or giant fennel plant). It is used in Indian cooking as a flavor enhancer. It is supposed to add a smooth flavor reminiscent of leeks and onions (although we are not sure we could identify what it added to the dish.)

Directions:
Put the oil in a pan and when it is shimmering add the bay leaves through cinnamon and bloom them until the bay leaves turn slightly brown and the smell becomes fragrant. Remove the cloves (so no one eats them by accident.) (The bay leaves and cinnamon stick are large enough it is not likely someone would eat them if left in the sauce). Add the onions and fry until translucent and slightly browned. Add the garlic and cook until it becomes fragrant (but not burnt). Add the spices ground turmeric through cayenne pepper. Bloom the spices until fragrant. Add the beans and tomatoes and stir until blended. Add the chicken, skin side down and cover with the sauce. Cook on low simmer for 1/2 hour. Turn the chicken over and cook for another 1/2 hour. Add the reserved tomato juice as needed to keep the sauce from scorching.

This is another really good curry. All the spices blend and meld together making for a complex dimension of flavor. It is not hot but the cayenne pepper gives it a pleasant slight “buzz”. The beans basically melted into the sauce making it very rich and creamy. The spices infused the chicken meat which was very tender and basically fell off the bone. 

Bangladeshi White Chicken Korma チキンコルマ

This is another of my wife's curry projects. (She has been making curries about once a week. We really like having them for lunch.) This recipe is based on a recipe in the cookbook  “Curry Easy” by Madhur Jaffrey which my wife got recently. This is a yogurt based white curry. 

 We added blanched green beans and skinned Campari tomato. I also garnished it with Japanese pickles called “Funkushin or Fukujin-zuke” 福神漬け to add some colors.

Ingredients:
1 tsp. Cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp. Cardamon
1/4 tsp cayenne
4 bay leaves
3 onions roughly chopped
4 chicken thighs
3 Tbs. Grated ginger
6 garlic cloves peeled and lightly crushed
1 cup greek yogurt
1 tbs. Vinegar
1 1/4 tsp salt

Directions:
Put several Tbs. Peanut oil in a frying pan and bloom the spices cinnamon through bay leaves in the hot oil. Add the onions and sauté until they are translucent. Add the garlic and ginger and fry until fragrant. Add the yogurt, vinegar and salt. Stir to make a creamy sauce. Put in the chicken and cover with the sauce. If more liquid is necessary add some chicken broth. Cook on simmer for about 1 hour or until the chicken is completely cooked.

This is a nice curry. It seems that the recipes in this cookbook are a bit simpler than the recipes in the other Madhur Jaffrey cookbooks we have. This one was very nice and a bit different from the usual that we have made which was good for a change. The sauce is creamy and the spices are flavorful and fairly gentle but slow heat will creep up on you. rice and Japanese Fukujinzuke pickles, this is a good curry.

Kerala-style chicken curry using drumsticks ケララ風のチキンカレー

At the start of COVID, certain grocery items became scarce. Indeed, we had a time when we could not always get chicken or pork. We turned to Instacart and got groceries from the Korean market "HMart". They appeared to have sources different from the ones used by the regular grocery stores. They were able to obtain these meats when the other grocery stores couldn’t.   So one time we got a large package of chicken "drumsticks" which is a part of the chicken we usually don’t get. But at the time we were grateful to get any part of the chicken. In any case, my wife recently found the package in our freezer and we decide the time had come to use it. We made two different dishes; I made a Japanese style simmered dish in black vinegar and soy sauce or "Kurosu-ni" 黒酢煮 in the Instant pot, and I asked my wife to make the remainder into curry. After consulting her Indian cookbooks, she decide to make Kerala-style chicken curry based on a recipe in Madhur Jaffrey’s “Curry Easy” cookbook.

As always, this was a very flavorful and satisfying dish. The recipe called for basil which we had in large supply from our window sill basil forest.* It is shown here with basil, tomatoes and a dab of greek yogurt as a topping. 

*Digression alert: This basil forest was another legacy of the covid time period. We were having trouble getting fresh herbs since we were relying on grocery deliveries. Several times the basil arrived completely rotten and we had to throw it away. Other times it was not available at all. So when a decent package of basil finally arrived from the grocery store my wife decided to root it, plant it and raise our own crop. She took some cuttings that included long stems and put them in a glass of water. About a week later the basil formed roots so she planted it in small pots of soil. As long as the basil isn’t allowed to flower it will continue producing. So over time my wife took cutting after cutting planting them is small pots and putting them in the sun on the window sill in the kitchen. The basil is quite happy there and we now have a basil forest growing. We had so much basil my wife gave away several pots as gifts. It is amazing that all of this derived from just one small plant from the grocery store. 

The picture below shows part of the basil forest.

The next picture shows a basil stem that has sprouted roots. This developed after it had been in the water for about a week. It is now ready to be planted in soil.

For the Kerala-style curry

Ingredients:
1/2 tsp whole cumin seeds
1/2 tsp. Whole brown mustard seeds
2-3 onions roughly chopped
2 Tbs. Peeled and finely chopped ginger
4 garlic cloves peeled and chopped
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 Tbs. Red paprika
1 tsp. Salt
15 to 20 curry leaves (or basil leaves as a substitute.)
Several small red potatoes skinned and chopped into small similar sized pieces.

Directions:
Add some peanut oil to a frying pan and add the cumin and mustard seeds. As soon as the mustard seeds start to pop add the onions and stir until the onion is lightly browned. Add the rest of the spices stirring until they bloom i.e. become fragrant. Add the potatoes and stir them into the sauce. Then add the chicken pieces. Spoon the sauce over the chicken. Turn the heat to simmer, cover and cook until the potatoes and chicken are soft. If the sauce gets too thick and starts to scorch add some chicken broth. See the next picture below. The bright red color comes from the paprika. Just before serving add the basil leaves (shown in the last picture).

 

This was another good curry. It was a perfect way to use the chicken drumsticks. The potatoes again absorbed the flavors of the spices and added to creaminess of the sauce. The taste of the paprika and the basil was a nice addition. 

Chicken with Avocado miso dressing アボカド味噌ドレシング

We used to subscribe New York Times Cooking. It was rather expensive for just the cooking section so we eventually cancelled the subscription. In any case, this is a recipe called ”Creamy Avocado-miso dressing” and it is from NYT Cooking. Since we had ripe avocado on hand and the recipe uses miso, we deemed this worth a try. This was supposedly  “salad dressing” for “hearty” greens, a warm grain bowl or grilled vegetables. We tried it as a topping for the homemade cheese wife made and as a dip for blanched cauliflower. Both tasted good. When we thawed a sous-vide cooked chicken breast, in addition to my traditional shredded chicken dish using sesame dressing, as per my wife’s suggestion, I made half of the shredded chicken with the avocado miso dressing. In the picture below, the left is with sesame dressing and the right is with avacado-miso dressing.

I used fresh cilantro leaves to garnished the dish made with avocado dressing.

For the one made with sesame dressing, I garnished it with white sesame.

The sous-vide cooked chicken breast is perfect for this type of dish. The meat is soft and moist.

Ingredients:
1 ripe avocado, halved and pitted, flesh removed from skin
1/4 cup lemon juice (I used Meyer lemons since I had them).
2 tbs olive oil
1 tbs vinegar (I used rice vinegar)
1 tbs white miso (I used “awase-meso” which is mixture of red and white miso).
1tbs honey
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp black pepper

Directions:
Combine all ingredients in a mini-food processor and blend until smooth (shown below).

This is a very nice dressing and we definitely taste the miso. The avocado takes a back seat but works well with the bright taste of the lemon and vinegar. We think this works better as a dip for vegetables. (We also had it as a dip for crackers and that worked very well too.) For the chicken dish, we think the sesame dressing goes better.

Chicken spinach curry ほうれん草入りチキンカレー

This is another one of my wife’s curry projects. This is based on a recipe from Madhur Jaffrey’s  “Quick & Easy Indian Cooking” called Chicken in cilantro, spinach and mustard sauce. Since we did not have fresh cilantro, we omitted it and we added potato based on our belief that potato goes well with almost any curry. We replaced “hot green chili” with Jalapeño pepper. My wife made additional changes as well. This may not be the dish in the book but this tasted very good with a nice creamy sauce.

Ingredients:
3 bay leaves
6 cardamon pods
1 inch stick cinnamon
5 whole cloves
2 or 3 onions chopped
1 cup raisins
1 cup greek yogurt
1 1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
2 inch piece of fresh ginger peeled and chopped
2 Jalapeno peppers, deveined, seeded and chopped finely
Package of fresh spinach
3 tablespoons of grainy mustard
4 chicken thighs
Generous handful of cilantro tops (optional)

chicken broth as needed if the sauce gets too thick or starts to scorch

Directions:
Gather together the spices and ingredients (#1 & #2). Combine the yogurt and mustard and set aside. Put the bay leaves through cloves in a pan with hot peanut oil. Fry until the bay leaves start to brown and the spices become fragrant. (Remove the cardamon pods and cloves. The bay leaves and cinnamon can stay because they are big enough not to be eaten by accident.) Add the raisins to the hot oil. (Frying the raisins really transforms them. They puff up and their flavor becomes more intense.) Add the onions and fry until they are soft and slightly brown. Add the jalapeno and ginger and fry a few minutes. Add the yogurt/mustard combination with the salt and cayenne pepper. Mix until the sauce is distributed. Nestle the chicken into the sauce, add the potatoes and makes sure they are all covered in the sauce. Lastly add the spinach (#3). Cover and simmer gently until the spinach has wilted into the sauce. (#4). Gently simmer for about 1 hour until the potatoes and chicken are cooked through. (If the sauce gets too thick or starts to scorch dilute it with some chicken broth.)

This is a really good curry. It was different from the previous curries. The raisins give it a deep fruity flavor which contrasts with and is offset by the vinegary sharpness of the mustard. It results in a really nice kind-of sweet and sour combo. The Yogurt makes the sauce very rich and creamy. The potatoes absorb the flavor of the spices and also add to the creaminess of the sauce. The spinach adds additional texture and a slight bitterness on the tongue. Another great choice for lunch or dinner. 

Chicken curry with navy beans ネイビー豆入りチキンカレー

This is another one of my wife’s curry projects. This is a chicken curry based on a recipe in Madhur Jaffrey’s “Quick and Easy Indian Cooking.” The original recipe calls for lentils but we did not have any. So my wife used canned navy beans. The addition of navy beans really worked adding a creamy texture to the sauce. My wife put just enough “heat” in addition to all the other spices. One of the best curries she made.

Ingredients: (shown below with little easter bunny to commemorate the season)
6 tbs. Oil
3 bay leaves
5 whole cloves
6 cardamon pods
1 cinnamon stick about 2 inches long

2 or 3 onions diced
2 cloves garlic finely chopped

1/2 tsp. Turmeric
2 tsp. Salt
1 1/2 tsp garam masala
1 1/2 tsp. Lemon juice

1 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
12 cherry tomatoes
1 can of white navy beans
6 oz. Green beans cut into 1 inch lengths
4 chicken thighs

Directions:

Put the ingredients from the oil to the cinnamon stick in a frying pan and heat until the bay leaves turn dark and the other spices bloom and become fragrant. Remove all the whole spices except for the bay leaves and cinnamon stick. (These can stay because they are easy to spot and there’s no chance someone might eat them by accident.) Add the onions to the spiced oil and cook until they start to brown slightly. Add the garlic and cook (careful not to burn). Next add the turmeric through lemon juice and cook until they bloom and become fragrant. Then  add and bloom the next spices—cumin seeds though cayenne pepper. Add the green beans, navy beans and tomatoes. Stir them into the sauce. Add the chicken and turn it over until coated in the sauce. Nestle into the sauce leaving it skin side down. Cover and cook gently on simmer for about 30 minutes. Then turn the chicken over and coat with the sauce. Continue cooking until the chicken is done about another 30 minutes for a total of 1 hour cooking. 

This was truly one of the best curries my wife has made. The beans absorbed the spice flavor and partially dissolved into the creamy sauce with some left whole to add a texture element. The spices provided layers and depth of flavor. The cayenne added just the right amount of zing to provide an interest that slowly built on the tongue. The chicken was flavorful and tender. This will become a regular in our repertoire. 

Smothered chicken with miso and bourbon

We saw an interesting recipe for chicken that used a sauce made of miso and bourbon.  With such an eclectic combination of ingredients particularly the use of miso, we had to try it. We first saw the recipe in Milk Street which led us to the cookbook by Edward Lee called "Smoke and Pickles". The sauce is made of miso, soy sauce and orange juice and also included bourbon during the cooking. I used the Instant pot for the pressure cooking but not the sauté function. Instead I used a regular frying pan for that function. The smell of bourbon comes through very clearly but unless you were told you would not even know there was miso and soy sauce involved. This is a good dish.

We made this with chicken thighs. Since we did not have any orange juice, we used mandarine orange sections cut up into small pieces. Since we believe in adding potatoes in this kind of dish, we added potatoes and omitted thickening the sauce with corn starch.

Ingredients:
2 medium onion, thinly sliced
3 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
2-3 shiitake mushrooms, caps thinly sliced
3 mandarine oranges, peeled, separated and cut into small chunks (original recipe calls for 1/2 cup orange juice).
2 tbs miso and 3 tbs soy sauce
2 tsp olive oil for sautéing the vegetables.
2/3 cup bourbon (we used Early times).
1 cup water (we used chicken broth)
4 chicken thighs, skin on and bone in, excess skin and fat trimmed.
4 small red potatoes, peeled and cut into bite sized pieces (see the second picture below).

Directions:
Mix the miso, soy sauce (and orange juice if using) in a small bowl and set aside.
Sauté onion in the olive oil for 5-7 minutes until soft and edges slightly browned add the garlic, mushroom, and mandarin oranges and sauté for 4-5 more minutes.
Add the bourbon (turn down the flame and be careful since the alcohol in the bourbon may cause a flare up), cook for several minutes or until the bourbon almost entirely reduces.
Add the soy sauce and miso mixture and cook for a few more minutes (see pictures below).

Add this mixture to the Instant pot, arrange the chicken thighs, skin side down, add the chicken stock.
Put on the lid, make sure venting is sealed, set to manual, high pressure and 15 minutes. I let it de-pressurize naturally (15-20 minutes).

The original recipe calls for thickening the sauce with corn starch and garnishing it with chopped scallion which we skipped.

The potatoes are our addition.

We served this with rice, blanched broccoli and skinned Campari tomato. Before eating, we mashed the potatoes to make the sauce thicker. This was a quite good dish. The chicken was tender and had a distinctive aroma of bourbon. The miso and soy sauce flavors did not come through strongly. We both felt that compared to the different versions of curries my wife makes this was a bit bland.

Cashew tomato curry with cheese curds (and chicken) カシュートマトカレー

As we mentioned earlier, with an abundance of homemade buttermilk, my wife has started making cheese using 4% milk and the homemade buttermilk. (One aspect of using heirloom cultures such as the one we are using for buttermilk is that you have to keep using them to keep them viable and active.) As a result we now have an abundance of homemade cheese curd. Although we enjoy eating it plain or marinated in olive oil and various spices including jalapeño, there is a limit to how much we can eat. My wife found this curry recipe and thought it would be a good way to further diversify the use of our abundant cheese curd supply. The original recipe was vegan but our version is not, since we added barbecued chicken. This is a very interesting and unique curry (for us) since it uses emulsified raw cashews and pureed tomato in addition to the usual Indian spices. It has a nice fresh tomato flavor and slow heat. The browned cheese curd substitute for meat was something new for us and we really liked it. Later, since we had extra chicken meat from a Weber cooked chicken, we added the dark meat which meant the dish was no longer vegan. But the chicken really “kicked it up a notch”; adding an additional smokey layer of flavor. The next picture shows how we served it with rice, tomatoes and broccoli for lunch. As usual, I ask my wife to take over.

Ingredients:
for the cashew puree
1/2 cup (2 oz.) raw cashews
1/2 cup boiling chicken broth

For the curry
4 Tbs. (2 oz.) butter (1 tsp. to brown the cheese curd and 3 tsp. for the curry)
8 oz. cheese curd cut into 1 inch cubes (firm tofu could be substituted)
2 cups tomato puree
1/8 to 1/4 tsp. cayenne powder
1/2 tsp. garam masala
1/2 tsp. paprika
1 tsp. granulated sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
Optional chicken broth if the sauce gets too thick.

For the chicken
dark meat from barbecued chicken amount to taste
Since the meat came from the chicken legs it was a bit dry. So we cooked it again in the Instantpot (the chicken meat, 1/2 cup of chicken broth at high pressure for 35 minutes with natural depressurization). The chicken tasted much better and was extremely tender after its encounter with the Instantpot.

Directions:
To make the cashew puree combine the cashews and the hot chicken broth. Let soak for 30 minutes. Then puree until smooth in a mini food processor (#1). Puree the tomatoes and set aside. (We used canned tomatoes)(#2). Cut the cheese into 1 inch squares (#3). Put 1 tsp. of the butter in a frying pan and melt until slightly browned. Add the cheese curd and cook until golden brown on both sides (#4). Set aside. Add the remaining 3 Tbs. of butter to the pan. Once it melts add the cashew puree (#5). Then add the cayenne powder, garam masala, paprika and sugar. Bloom the flavors. Cook the mixture until fully blended. Add the tomatoes and blend completely. Cook until the mixture thickens slightly. Add the cheese curd and cook until the mixture darkens (about 5 -10 minutes) (#6). (A splatter guard would be recommended because the mixture may tend to spit.) If the mixture gets too thick add some of the chicken broth. Add the chicken and continue cooking for 15 to 20 minutes. Serve with a drizzle of cream on top. 

 

We really liked this curry. The browned cheese curd was something new for us. We didn’t know it could be cooked like that and it added a new dimension for our approach to cheese curd. We will probably use it in other recipes. It was crispy on the outside with a pleasant browned butter flavor and soft on the inside. The curry sauce was very smooth with a bright tomato flavor and a slow heat. We found the sauce itself was surprisingly filling. We realized this is because it is nut based, so in essence, we were eating handfuls of cashew nuts. The version without the chicken was very nice but we thought the addition of barbecued chicken really made it even better by adding chicken and barbecued smokey flavor. We learned a lot from making this curry and it really expanded our “curry horizons”. We’ll be making this and various versions of it in the future. 

Chicken onion sauce curry 鶏肉のタマネギソースカレー

This is another of my wife's curry porojects. This time, instead of the usual pork, she used chicken thighs. This one uses an onion-centric sauce with the usual Indian spices. Since we decided that we like potatoes in any curry, she added potatoes as well. We also added blanched broccoli and skinned Campari tomato while heating the curry which adds colors as well as fresh taste. I will ask my wife to provide the ingredients and directions.

Ingredients:
4 chicken thighs
2 to 3 onions diced
1 1/2 inch cube of ginger peeled and coarsely chopped
Several garlic cloves (or as many as like) peeled
1 Tbs. Ground coriander
1 Tbs. Ground cumin
1/2 tsp. Ground turmeric
1/4 to 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
2-3 tomatoes peeled
3 to 4 small red potatoes peeled
2 tsp. Salt
Some chicken broth as needed
1/2 tsp garam masala
Several tablespoon of plain yogurt
Finely chopped parsley


Directions:

The line up of spices is shown in the first picture below. Take 1/2 of the chopped onions, the garlic and ginger put into a blender and blend to a paste. Set aside. Sauté the remaining onions in a frying pan. Cook until slightly browned. (Second picture below) Remove from pan and set aside. Add the onion/garlic/ginger paste to the pan (Last picture below) and fry until it too turns slightly brown. Add the spices (coriander through cayenne) until they “bloom” and become fragrant. Add back the sautéd onions and the tomatoes and salt. Stir until all is blended. Add in the potatoes and the chicken. If more liquid is needed add some chicken broth. Cook until the chicken is cooked and becomes tender. Finally add the garam masala and several spoonfuls of yogurt. Top with the parsley just before serving.

This is another good curry. The onions add a pervasive gentle sweetness underlying the complexities of the other spices. The cayenne pepper gives is a slight “sing” of hotness that builds slightly. The chicken becomes flavorful and tender, just falling off the bone. The potatoes also absorbs the flavors and a nice robustness. A great dish with rice or bread for lunch or dinner. 

Chicken stew with red wine and chestnuts 鳥もも肉と栗の赤ワイン蒸し煮

This is another dish made with chicken and chestnuts. Compared to the previous one which had a traditional Japanese flavor, this one uses red wine. 

This dish tasted quite different from the Japanese flavored one and because it was made with red wine (needless to say) it went very well with red wine. Since the chicken was dredged in flour and then cooked, the sauce was thick; nicely coating the chicken and chestnuts.

Ingredients:
2 chicken thighs, bone removed and cut into bite size
200 ml dry red wine (I used Tempranillo from Rivera del duero which I happened to have)
2 bay leaves
1 medium onion, cut into rings
1/3 celery stalk, sliced on bias
1 clove garlic
2 tbs vegetable oil (I used olive oil)
1 tbs butter (I used unsalted)
2 tbs AP flour
10-15 prepared chest nuts (I used commercial chestnuts from a jar)

2 tsp Worcester sauce
Fresh parsley, chopped, for garnish

Directions:
Marinate the chicken in the red wine and the bay leaves for one hour (room temperature) or overnight (in the refrigerator).
Remove the chicken, reserve the marinade and the bay leaves
Season the chicken with salt and pepper, dredge in the flour and set aside
Add the oil to the pan and sauté the garlic, celery, and onion. Remove when cooked and softened and set aside.
In the same pan, melt the butter and brown the chicken pieces.
Add back the vegetables and the marinade with the bay leaves, the Worcester sauce and cook for 15 minutes mixing occasionally.
Garnish with chopped parsley.

We really like this dish. Although the original recipe calls for sugar and granulated chicken bouillon, I did not use them. The chicken kept its shape. The chestnuts added an additional “meatiness” to the dish.  The combination of red wine sauce and mildly sweet chestnuts went well together. 

Chicken and chestnuts stew 鶏肉と栗の煮込み

For some years we have gotten fresh North American chestnuts from California. It is a lot of work to peel/clean chestnuts. It is particularly hard to remove the internal brown membrane or “shibukawa” 渋皮 that extends into the meat of the chestnut and is a particular characteristic of North American chestnuts.  The chestnuts we got from California last year were a bit disappointing. They were kind of dry and chalky. So this year we got prepared chestnuts in a jar. According to the label they appear to have been packaged/processed in France but the chestnuts themselves originated in unspecified EU countries. It said “roasted chestnuts” but in fact they were steamed. When we opened the jar, many of the chestnuts were fragmented with a few whole intact chestnuts tucked in at the top. They were not sweetened and tasted fairly good with nice texture**. So I decided use the chestnuts for this stew dish I saw on line. Since I had leftover daikon and burdock root I need to use up this recipe was a perfect choice. Although the recipe calls for “renkon” 蓮根 lotus root, I did not have it. I made this one weekend morning and served this as a lunch with kinpira-gobou 金平牛蒡 and rice.

**Interestingly, my wife discovered while eating the dish I made that several of the chestnuts indeed had the internal  brown membrane. These membranes were left in the nut and the nut was just processed as if they weren’t there. It was a rather unpleasant surprise to bite down unexpectedly on the hard shell-like substance. After that she recommended checking the chestnuts as they come out of the jar and if necessary dismantling them to remove any membrane left. We saw this as a sloppy element of the processing. 

Not all the items I put in the dish are seen in the picture. I also put in konjack or konnyaku こんにゃく．The seasoning is typical Japanese but the kobou flavor comes through strongly. While simmering, the chestnuts broke into large chunks but tasted good.

According to the recipe the chicken was to be cooked in water with sake and scallion before adding to the rest of the ingredients. I would have just put the cut up chicken into the stew. I suppose this extra process would reduce “chicken-ness”.

Ingredients (at least 4 fairly good size servings).
For pre-cooking of the chicken
Two chicken thigh, bone removed (I left the skin on) .
2 tbs sake
2 scallions
several slices of ginger
12000 ml water

For stew
2-3 inch daikon, peeled, cut into 1/2 inch thick rounds and then quarters
2-3 carrots, peeled and cut into bite sized pieces (“rangiri” 乱切り cut at 45 degree angle as you rotate the carrot)
1/2 “gobou” burdock root, skin scraped off using the back of the knife and also cut into bite sized pieces using “rangiri”
2 inch long renkon, skin peeled and cut into 1/4 inch thick half moon (I did not have renkon).
1/2 Konnyaku, torn into small bite sized pieces by hand (irregular shapes increase the surface areas), parboiled and drained
10-15 parboiled green beans
12-15 chestnuts (original recipe calls for roasted and sweetened chestnuts called “Tenshin amaguri” 天津甘栗.

For cooking liquid
250ml of the water in which the chicken was cooked
250ml dashi broth
100ml sake
3 tbs mirin
3 tbs soy sauce
1-2 slices of ginger cut into julienne

Directions:
For pre-cooking the chicken
Add the sake, ginger and scallion to the water and let it come to a boil then place the chicken into the water.
Turn down the flame to simmer and let it cook for 5 minutes and then turn off the flame. Let it stand for 15 minutes (the original instructions said cook for15 minutes but I thought that would be overcooking especially since the chicken will be simmered again with the vegetables).
Take out the chicken and cut into bite sizes pieces.
Keep the water which was used for cooking the chicken to  cook the vegetables.

For stew
Add the chicken cooking liquid to a pan
Add the chicken, vegetables and konnyaku
Cook them on medium high flame
Once it starts boiling, turn down to simmer, add the chestnuts and cook for 20 minutes.
Add the green beans in the last 5 minutes.

This has a typical Japanese flavor profile. I am not sure pre-cooking the chicken is necessary. The prepared chestnuts had a natural sweetness and the entire dish was really nice if not outstanding. The quality of the jarred chestnuts was not the best we have ever had but it was still a lot easier then trying to process the raw chestnuts and tasted better too. 

Not-fried "Kara-age" fried chicken 揚げない唐揚げ

My wife really likes the chicken kara-age I make. I have not made it for some time. One weekend, we got chicken thighs specifically to make this dish but somehow I didn’t get around to it over the weekend. I just prepared the chicken (removed the bone and cut the meat into bite sized pieces). I marinated it in soy sauce, mirin, sake, sesame oil, grated garlic and ginger in a Ziploc bag. I thought, maybe, I could fry it up one weekday evening. But I did not have the energy or time to do that. So, instead, I baked it in our toaster oven on convection mode. We have baked such dishes as chicken wings before in the toaster oven instead of frying them. This version of kara-age was not as good as deep fried but good enough. I served this as an appetizer with cucumber and tomato salad.

Ingredients:
4 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs, excess fat removed and bone removed, cut into bite sized pieces with some skin on.
1/4 cup "Katakuri-ko" potato starch

Marinade:
4 tbs soy sauce
2 tbs sake
2 tbs mirin
1/2 tsp grated garlic (from tube)
1/2 tsp grated ginger (from tube)
2 tsp dark sesame oil
Hot sauce such as Sriracha to taste

Directions:
Place the marinade and the chicken in a Ziploc bag, massage, remove the air, seal and let it marinate overnight in the refrigerator.

Remove the chicken, blot off the excess marinade and dredge with the potato starch shaking off excess starch.
Preheat the toaster oven to 380F (I could have used a higher temperature like 400F, but I was afraid it might burn since the marinade contained mirin).
I covered the baking tray with aluminum foil  (still the chicken stuck, I could have used parchment paper), lightly oiled, placed the chicken and baked for 25-30 minutes (shorter with higher temp may have been better).

This was not bad but it may have been better if I could have cooked it at a higher temperature. I didn’t because of the sugar in the mirin, it could easily burn. Maybe, next time, I may just use soy sauce and  sake in the marinade omitting the mirin.

In any case, this was good especially weekday night and it heated up nicely in the toaster oven in the toasting mode next day.

Four appetizers in new small bowls 御通し4種類と新しい小鉢

We have a good number of small Japanese-style bowls and plates but for some reason my relationship with breakable dishes ends up with them getting broken every-now-and-then. So I am always on the look out for potential replacement small Japanese style dishes/bowls. (Also, since enjoyment of food is visual in addition to taste, I just like different bowls in which to present what I make to complete the entire experience). I found these small bowls on Amazon. They came in four different patterns/colors in a set of four (i.e. total of 16 bowls) . I ended up getting all 4 sets. So, this is the first time I used this set to serve 4 appetizers. The first picture, from left to right, are "salmon nanban" 鮭の南蛮漬け, "hijiki seaweed stir-fry" ひじきと油揚げの炒めのも and Japanese "dashi-maki" だし巻き卵 omelet, "Wood ear"* mushroom, cucumber and wakame seaweed sunomono" キクラゲ、ワカメ、胡瓜の酢の物, and  "shredded chicken tenderloin and asparagus in sesame dressing" 鳥のささみとアスパラの胡麻和え. 

*Wood ear mushroom is so-called because it grows out of the surface of wood like an ear sticking out. Japanese call it "ki-kurage" meaning "jelly fish of the wood" because the crunchy texture is similar to dried and salted edible jelly fish. It is interesting, however, when it is written in "kanji" ideograms, it is  木耳 which means wood 木 ear 耳. There is no way you can pronounce 木耳 as "ki-kurage" but the meaning of these two ideograms indeed mean "wood ear".

The second picture is the salmon dish I usually make, fried and marinated in sweet vinegar with vegetables. In order to serve multiple appetizers, it is necessary to pre-make a number of them and have them last long enough to serve over several days. Due to the vinegar this dish lasts a few weeks in the refrigerator. So this salmon dish is a good one to serve as an appetizer. Perfect with sake but not with wine. The pattern of this bowl is not classic Japanese but nice—also the color complements the color of the salmon.

The third picture of hijiki seaweed is a dish that also lasts for some time in the fridge. I served it with Japanese "dashimaki" omelet which goes well with the seaweed dish both visually (yellow and black) and by taste (sweet and salty). The pattern of the bowl is classic Japanese wave pattern.

This is a variation of my usual "sunomono" dish. Besides cucumber and wakame, I used wood ear mushroom. We can get this mushroom usually dried. One of the problems with hydrating the dried items like this is after hydration, the volume increases much more than expected. This was a case here and I used wood ear in several dishes including fried rice for lunch one day. In any case for this dish, I cut the wood ear into thin strips like jelly fish. I also added ground sesame and sesame oil in the dressing. The wood ear really adds crunch exactly like jelly fish.

I froze sous vide chicken breast a few months ago and decided to thaw one. It came out exactly like it was just cooked. I made the chicken salad I usually make which was really good but I kept the tenderloin part of the sous vide chicken for this "goma-ae" 胡麻和え dish. I tore the tenderloin along the meat fibers to make thin strands. I dressed this with sesame dressing ("nerigoma" 練りごま sesame paste, roasted and ground sesame, sugar, rice vinegar and soy sauce. I kept this dressing in the fridge which made it stiff. So I added small amount of warm water to loosen the dressing) with blanched asparagus (stem cut into thin pieces at a slant and garnished with tips of the asparagus). The meat was so juicy and tender.

These small dishes are nothing special but I make slight variations which make it interesting and adds to the enjoyment of sake.

Sous Vide chicken salad with mango for lunch マンゴー入り低温調理鶏胸肉サラダ

I regularly make sous vide chicken breast. Using skin-on and bone-in split breast, sous vide at 140F for 4 hours produces really good moist chicken. Most of the time, I ice it down in the cooking pouch and use it for chicken salad or just for sandwiches. If you do not open the pouch and keep it in the meat drawer, it will last for at least 2 weeks. I did not describe the chicken salad recipe accurately in the previous post. I add some fruit to this curry flavored chicken salad. The original recipe calls for grapes and cantaloupe which makes a wonderful salad. I did not have grapes or cantaloupe this time but had champagne mango, I added to this to the salad and it went extremely well. This was a weekend lunch.

We served my potato salad (Instead of Yukon gold, I am using Russet potato recently) and cheesy muffin with prosciutto and chives.

I added thinly sliced cucumber, salted with the moisture squeezed out and lightly dressed with sushi vinegar before mixing it into the potato salad.

I removed the skin and deboned the sous vide chicken breast (I also removed the tenderloin for another dish) then cut it into bite sized cubes. The dressing is the same as before; mixture of mayo, Greek yogurt, mango chutney, curry powder, and lemon juice. Since the dressing included mango chutney, I thought adding mango to the salad may work. So, I added champagne (yellow) mango cut into small cubes.

This worked well. The dressing is sweet and sour with curry flavor (although not hot despite a large amount of curry powder used due to the Greek yogurt and mayo) which is echoed in the taste of mango (more sweet than sour). This was a really good satisfying lunch.

Salmon and avocado cubes and Yamahai sake 鮭とアボカドの角切と山廃純米酒

Most of the mid-West and Eastern U.S. are having very hot and humid summer days. One of these very hot weekends, I decided to go grocery shopping early in the day to avoid the mid-day heat. At our gourmet grocery store, which opened up just before I arrived, the sushi case had only a few items prepared. One of them was tuna and salmon sashimi. So I got a package intending to serve it for the evening. Both sashimi were rather thickly sliced. Since I happened to have Japanese nagaimo 長芋, I decided make "Yamakake" 山かけ from the tuna (left in the picture below)  and make  a variation of tuna and avocado cubes using salmon cubes (which would make it salmon and avocado cubes) (right in the picture below).

Since the tuna was yellowfin tuna キハダマグロ, I marinated it after I cut it into  small cubes in concentrated Japanese "men-tsuyu" noodle sauce 麺つゆ for several hours in the refrigerator to make it taste better.  I seasoned grated nagaimo or "tororo" とろろ with wasabi dissolved in soy sauce,  and placed the tuna on top after draining the excess marinade. I garnished it with strips of nori (I served more nori on the side). This is, of course, is a very common way to serve tuna and nagaimo and we both really like it. We added more nori as we enjoyed this dish.

Since I had limes, after I cut avocado into small cubes, I dressed the cubes with lime juice to prevent discoloration. Cubes of salmon were also marinated in Japanese concentrated noodle sauce in exactly same way as the tuna. I dressed them with finely chopped garlic, dark sesame oil and soy sauce and garnished it with chiffonade of perilla and finely chopped scallion. Since the salmon was much fattier than the tuna, it did not absorb the marinade as much but, over all, this dish really worked. Both the salmon and avocado had a similar oily texture.

As a third dish, I served  4 items on the small plate. Only one that is slightly new is the chicken tenderloin dressed in soy sauce, yuzu-kosho 柚子胡椒 and finely chopped edible chrysanthemum 春菊 (blanched, which I happened to have). The chicken tenderloin was removed from sous vide chicken breast. This was very good. The chrysanthemum gave a slightly bitter taste and went well with the moist tenderloin and yuzu-kosho flavor.

The remaining three items are "our usual suspects", Japanese dashi-maki omelet 青海苔入りだし巻きwith aonori, sugar snap blanched and soaked in salt-seasoned Japanese dashi broth スナップ豌豆の塩びたし, and simmered taro 里芋の煮付け.

This evening, we tried a new sake (although we had it before in Japan). It is Tengumai but not "daiginjo". This is Yamahai Junmai 山廃純米天狗舞. The label has a formal name of this old way of making sake 山卸廃止酛仕込(やまおろしはいしもとしこみ). Compared to our new house sake Tengumai daiginjo 天狗舞大吟醸, this is a quite different sake. I think we had this for the first time when we visited Kanazawa 4 years ago. This sake is savory/rich and dry and has earthy/mushroomy background flavor. Some sake expert suggested that this sake should not be served refrigerator cold but at room temperature and suggested the taste will change as it warms up. I took this bottle out a few hours prior to tasting for that reason. It has a nice golden hue (as opposed to clear as in daiginjo). In general, we prefer clean, fruity and dry sake (daiginjo profile), but we liked this sake. It has much more characters and is not too yeasty like other jumai sake can be. We got this sake from a new sake-specialized internet merchant called "Tippsy sake". I will post more about this place in more details in the near future.

"Tsumami" appetizers 酒のつまみ

I am still cooking Izakaya-style small dishes but generally nothing particularly new. The dishes below are what we had after the perilla wrapped chicken dish 鶏胸肉の青紫蘇巻き. Often, we roast pork (loin or shoulder) in our Weber grill, but sometimes, the roast is really big so I divide it into two roasts; one to roast in the Weber and another to make into  Chinese style "Nibuta" 煮豚. For the dish pictured here I just served small pieces of one such nibuta, with ajitama 味玉 (a soft boiled egg marinated in concentrated noodle sauce) and blanched sugar snap. After a few days the egg yolk of the ajitama becomes more congealed but maintains a nice soft texture.

For the third  dish of the evening, I used one of the chicken breast halves left over after making the perilla wrapped chicken. Both are marinated in the same way but this one I pounded further into thin slices, coated in potato starch and gently poached (called "suisho” 水晶).

I cut it into small bite size pieces and served it with a side of thinly sliced cucumber (American mini-cucumber) dressed in ponzu sauce. Because it was coated with potato starch before poaching, it has a nice smooth (slippery) texture. Marinating with sake, soy sauce and potato starch made the meat moist and tender.

None of these are new but we still enjoy having many small dishes.