Seafood nabe on a snowy day 雪降りの夕の海鮮鍋

As the weather got colder our thoughts turned to having Japanese hot pot or nabe 鍋 for dinner. This week we had some snow and our backyard was transformed to a winter wonderland; perfect time for nabe. So we decided to have one using whatever ingredients we had on hand.

We used to cook nabes on a portable gas cooker with a butene fuel canister but both the cooker and the canisters became so old we started worrying about how safe they were. Fortunately after we used up the canisters several years ago. We switched to a table top induction cooker (or Japanese will say IH or induction heater).  Making Sukiyaki すき焼き on this type of cooker works well because a sukiyaki nabe pot is usually made of cast iron but other earthenware or pottery pots or nabes won’t work. Then, we discovered an induction-cooker-compatible nabe pot. (It has a magnetic metal disk embedded in the bottom). With it,  we can do a nabe at the table without having to use a gas canister fuel source. 

I checked our freezer and refridgerator and decided we could do a sea food nabe or “kaisen-nabe” 海鮮鍋. We defrosted, scallops, cod, pacific oyster (this is the second time we used frozen Pacific oyster which worked well as a fry) and shrimp. We also had fresh shiitake and  nappa cabbage but not other green leafy vegetables. In any case, we set up our nabe feast.

I started the broth by soaking kelp in the nabe pot in cold water for several hours.  In the evening, I put the pot with the kelp in it on the induction cooker. Once the water came to a boil, I removed the kelp. I then added the shrimp shells and once the color of the shells changed I continued simmering for a few minutes, I the removed the shrimp shells.  I seasoned the broth with white dashi “Shiro-dashi” 白だしand light colored soy sauce making a very gentle broth. I started cooking the hard part of the nappa cabbage as well as the other vegetables. We also had some decent firm tofu from Whole Foods which I added. Next came daikon, carrot and potato, all precooked in the microwave oven.

Our seafood lineup is shown below (all frozen, and thawed in the refrigerator). It included shrimp, scallop (from Great Alaska Seafood), Pacific oysters (from Vital choice wild sea food and organics) and cod (from Whole foods). This was the second time we used frozen Pacific oysters. The first time I made fried oysters.  These were much better than the small fragmented fresh or pasteurized  oysters we sometimes get.

The picture below shows the vegetables which waiting to be put into the nabe; the leafy portion of nappa cabbage, tofu, shiitake mushroom, precooked daikon, potato, and carrot. 

We made sure the seafood was not overcooked. We also used  ponzu sauce as we were eating. This was a fun dinner perfect with the snowy winter outside and the steaming body warming nabe inside. We had warm sake (“Hakutsuru Ginjo 白鶴吟醸) to boot. Of course, there were leftovers. Classically, Japanese will end the nabe by adding rice or noodles into the remaining broth to make a “shime” 〆 final dish but we were too full and the next day, we made rice porridge with eggs for lunch.

Appetizers 4 kinds お通し４種類

These are 4 kinds of appetizers we had as starters one evening. Nothing really new. Below, from left to right, are; simmered Japanese eggplant 茄子の含め煮 or 煮浸し and simmered "kabocha" Japanese squash かぼちゃの煮物, salmon in sweet vinegar 鮭の南蛮漬け, "Kazunoko" herring roe with cucumber and "ikura" salmon roe 数の子、胡瓜の酢の物のいくら載せ, and the last is the Spanish mackerel simmered in miso 鯖の味噌煮 I usually make.

I usually take the corners of the kabocha pieces off to prevent them from crumbling during cooking but I was a bit lazy and did not do that this time. Nonetheless the pieces still kept their shape. The eggplant was a small long Japanese eggplant (this is the only kind we can consistently get). I also added blanched broccoli and heated up in the microwave.

The Japanese eggplant was from HMart Korean grocery store which we are using more often. As an innovation from my usual method of cooking eggplant I fried the skin side first. Supposedly, this  helps to retain the skin’s color. Although this is not much different from the previous post, I describe the recipe for my own convenience.

Ingredients:
3 Japanese eggplant
2 tbs neutral vegetable oil
two small pieces of ginger, crushed with the side of the knife.

250ml Japanese dashi broth (I made this with my usual bonito and kelp dashi pack)
3 tbs soy sauce
3 tbs mirin

(Instead of soy sauce, I am using "shirodashi" 白だしand light colored soy sauce).

Directions:
Cut the eggplants in half lengthwise. Shallowly cut the skin in crosshatching pattern and then cut lengthwise again to make 1/4 eggplant.
Add the oil to a frying pan on medium flame and add the ginger for a few minutes until fragrant.
Add the eggplants skin-side down and fry for 3-4 minutes and turn over to fry both of the fresh sides for 2-3 minutes each,
Add the seasonings and broth (below), put on the lid and simmer for 3-4 minutes.

This is good eaten hot right after it is cooked but it can also be stored in the broth in a sealable container in the refrigerator. The stored eggplant can be eaten cold or heated up in the microwave.

This is usual salmon nanban. This one was really good since the quality of the salmon (from Whole foods) was good and I did not over cook it. I served this with sugar snap in salt broth スナップ豌豆の塩びたし.

Mr. and Mrs. Segawa of Tako Grill kindly gave us "kazunoko" herring roe 数の子. I prepared it as I described in my New Year dish tab. The half serving shown below was soaked in dashi broth with soy sauce and mirin seasoning. I marinated the other half serving in sake-lee and miso mixture  or "kasu-miso" 粕味噌. Since this preparation will last longer than the one soaked in dashi broth we will eat it closer to the holidays.

I also served Spanish mackerel in miso sauce 鯖の味噌煮. (The red dots surrounding the mackerel are part to the decoration of the bowel not part of the preparation.)

This was a quite a good starter line up for the evening.

Yellowtail marinaded in sake lee ハマチの粕漬け

This was the last of the whole fresh yellowtail. I marinated the filet in sake lee 酒粕 or "Kasu-zuke" 粕漬け. Since I did not have a time to cook this during the week, the fish marinated for a week which was a bit too long. I also made Japanese stewed vegetable  "nituske" 煮付け as a side.

I broiled the fish in our toaster oven.

The Japanese vegetable stew included lotus root  or "renkon" レンコン, daikon 大根、carrot, and "konnyaku" こんにゃく. I added blanched and salt broth sugar snaps スナップ豌豆の塩びたし at the time of serving.

Ingredients:
Sake lee 300grams
Red miso 30grams
Sugar 3 tbs
Salt 1/2 tsp
Sake to loosen up the marinade if too stiff,

Directions:
I added half of the sake lee mixture in the bottom of a sealable container and placed cheese cloth (after washing to remove any lint). I put in the filets and then covered them with another layer of cheese cloth. I put the remaining sake lee mixture on top. I let it marinate in the refrigerator (for a week as it turned out).

This was a bit over-marinated. I started broiling on the flesh side first as shown below in the toaster oven.

When the fish is 70% done, I flipped it and broiled the skin side. This would have been perfect if I cooked the fish after 2-3 days. Nonetheless this was good . The fish flesh was firmer than if it was marinated for less time (moisture was leached out). Still, we enjoyed this.

Yellowtail burger はまちバーガー

 I was trying to use all parts of the whole yellowtail I got from Hmart through Instacart. I scraped off all the meat from the bone as well as the meat close to the end of the tail. I minced it but the amount was not enough to make a substantial dish. So I decided to make a yellowtail burger. As a binder and to make the "meat" go further I added “hanpen ” はんぺん. It is steamed Japanese fish cake made of white fish meat and egg white and came pre-made in a package. I served the resulting burger as a lunch with leftover shiitake mushroom risotto, sautéed pencil asparagus and scrambled egg with tomato.

The yellowtail hamburger came out rather soft and tender thanks to the hanpen but the surface was nicely browned with a slight crunch. 

Ingredients:
Yellowfin meat scraped off from the bone and the end of the tail, finely minced (I am not sure how much this was but probably less than 200 grams)
1/3 hanpen, thawed, cut into small cubes
1/2 egg, beaten
2 shiitake mushroom, both stalks and caps finely chopped
1 tsp of red miso
1/2 tsp mirin
Pinch of salt
Vegetable oil for cooking

Directions:
In a plastic cylinder (which came with the emersion blender), add the hanpen and the egg. Using the emersion blender make a smooth mixture. Add the miso and the seasoning and blend. Add the yellowtail meat and mix with a silicon spatula. Dump the mixture on a lightly oiled plate, divide in half and form two oval disks, half inch thick. In a non-stick fry pan, on medium-low heat add the oil and slide in the disks. I cooked one side about 5 minutes and turned the burger over and cooked another 3-4 minutes until done.

This was rather gentle tasting and tender fish burger. The miso flavor really made it. This was nice light lunch.

Simmered yellowtail head ハマチの兜煮

For many non-Japanese (and even for some Japanese I suppose), this may not look attractive but stewed fish head is a classic Japanese dish and does have a quite good amount of meat to enjoy. Even my wife likes stewed fish heads. I made this from the yellowtail fish I bought recently from Hmart and was part of my effort to make sure none of the fish went to waste.  The classic fish used for this dish is perch or “Tai” 鯛. I have made this using salmon head which was very good. This yellowtail head was not very big (I should not have removed the collar or “kama” which I froze for later use. It would have added more meat). I simmered the head in seasoned broth with daikon.

Ingredients: (for two servings)
One yellowtail head, cut into two lengthwise (requires a heavy chef’s knife)
Daikon, peeled and cut into 4 one inch thick rounds
Ginger, 4-5 slices
100ml sake
100ml water
2tbs mirin
2tbs soy sauce
1 tsp sugar

Directions:
Place the two halves of the fish head in a sauce pan (they should fit snuggly).
Add the sake and water and simmer for 10-15 minutes with folded aluminum foil as an inner lid or “otoshi-buta” until cooked through. 

Add the mirin, soy sauce and sugar (I also added rounds of daikon which were precooked in water with some rice grains). I cooked until only a small amount of liquid remained (15-20minutes).

I served the fish heads with daikon and added sugar snaps cooked in salt broth スナップ豌豆の塩びたし. This was quite good. The seasoned broth was a flavorful part of the serving as were the daikon which absorbed the flavor or the broth and were nice and tender. The fish cheek meat, as is the case with other meat sources such as beef or pork was the best part of the stew. Next time I will not remove the collars since they would have provided a bit more meat.

Grilled yellowtail filet ハマチの塩焼き

Choosing among the whole fresh fish available from HMart Korean grocery store, we tried "yellowtail" this time. The Japanese name may be "hamachi" ハマチ  but the Japanese name changes as this fish grows. If the fish is over 80 cm, it is called "Buri" ブリ which appears to be the uniform nomenclature throughout Japan.  The younger, smaller yellowtail, however, has many different names depending on the locale. The one we got may have qualified as a small "hamachi". Of course, the best way to enjoy hamachi is as sashimi, but this one was not fresh enough for that. So, after I cleaned the fish I made what is known in Japanese as sannmai-oroshi 三枚おろし  or “three layers” which consist of two filets and a central layer of bone with bits of meat still attached between the bones. I cut one of the filets into serving size, salted it and let it stand in the refrigerator for several hours. I blotted the surface with paper towel, re-salted and cooked it. It would have been best grilled over a charcoal fire but I simply cooked it in a frying pan with a small amount of olive oil. I served it with salted vegetables 浅漬け (Cucumber, nappa cabbage, thick rectangles of daikon), myoga in sweet vinegar 冥加の甘酢漬け and blanched broccoli. I found that we had a chopstick rest shaped like myoga so in keeping with the theme included it for the chopsticks on the tray. This dish was quite good with cold sake.

When we received the fish, it was about 30cm in length and came gutted with tail and fins cut off but the head was still on. After I prepared the fish, we had two half heads (cut in half along the spine,) two collars and two filets.

I cut the two filets into small serving size. I cooked one of the filets as shown here. I marinated the other filet in sake lee ハマチの酒粕味噌漬け. I simmered the heads as "Kabuto-ni" 兜煮, and the collars or "Kama" カマ were frozen for later. I also scraped off all the meat from the bone and also removed the meat from skin of the tail portions and used it to make a yellowtail burger ハマチバーガー (all the subjects of future posts). So every part of the fish, except the bones and fins was used— nothing was waste. In so doing I hope we did justice to what this lovely fish had to offer.

Grilled bluefish and matsutake lunch

We used to get a whole fresh Spanish mackerel at Whole foods, but it has not been available for a long time. Since we started buying groceries from the Korean grocery store HMart through Instacart, we have found they have more variety of whole fresh fish available. We got whole Spanish mackerel from them a few times. This time, however, mackerel was not available but bluefish was. We have used bluefish* in place of Spanish mackerel in the past and decided to go with it. I am not sure how I ordered it (by weight or by the numbers) but I ended up with two rather large bluefish not cleaned at all. So, I had to scale, gut, remove head and make filets. It was a bit of work but the fish was really fresh. As before, I made bluefish simmered in miso sauce ブルーフィシュの味噌煮 from the filets and  "tsumire" fish balls soup つみれ汁 from the fish meat scraped off the bones. I set the fish ball soup and miso simmered fish aside for another meal. The remaining filets, I salted and grilled. We happened to have matsutake 松茸 from Oregon mushroom and matsutake rice 松茸ご飯 rice leftover from dinner the previous night. So I made matsutake soup 松茸のお吸い物, warmed up the  rice and served with the bluefish for our lunch on Sunday.

* I am not sure of its Japanese name but it appears to be "Oki-suzuki" オキスズキ. I have not seen or eaten it while I lived in Japan.

I first salted the fillet and let it sit in the refrigerator for a few hours. I cooked the bluefish filet with a small amount of olive oil in a frying pan on low flame with skin side  down until the skin got brown (6-7 minutes, I also applied decorative cuts on the skin to prevent the skin breaking during the cooking). I cooked 80% on the skin side, flipped it and completed the cooking. I served this with pickled myoga 冥加の甘酢漬け, salt picked cucumber and nappa cabbage きゅうりと白菜の浅漬け and thinly sliced cucumber dressed in sushi vinegar 胡瓜の酢の物. Since the fish was well-salted, we did not need additional sauce such as soy sauce for this.

For the matsutake soup 松茸のお吸い物, I made bonito "dashi" カツオの出汁 from a dash pack seasoned with mirin and light colored soy sauce and salt, added thinly sliced matsutake, silken tofu, "kyoubu" 京麩  decorative gluten cake (dried, hydrate before adding to the soup), freeze dried "mitsuba" 三つ葉 and yuzu zest ゆず (frozen).

The bluefish prepared this way was very good. The flesh was pleasingly oily, soft and had a nice flavor. The skin did not get crispy but stayed soft. It may have been a bit strong tasting fish to accompany the delicate matsutake but we really enjoyed this lunch.

Special take-out Kaiseki box from Sushi Taro 寿司太郎のテイクアウト特製会席弁当

Prior to COVID the omakase counter at Sushi Taro was our special-occasion-go-to place. As a matter of fact, we had a reservation in March this year but because of COVID, that got canceled. I knew for some time that, although the restaurant was closed, Sushi Taro has been doing take-out. But getting there either from home or work for the pick-up was impractical. Since I started thinking about the NewYear “Osechi” 御節 from Sushi Taro, I contacted them. I was delighted to find out that they are going to do Osechi for the next New Year and I quickly placed an order. During that interaction, I learned that they do special omakase kaiseki boxes-to-go and that they can deliver. I quickly placed an order. Delivery was scheduled for Friday at 5pm. We were like little kids in anticipation. I even "just happened" to come home from work a bit early for the delivery. It arrived in two, two-tiered (bento or modified jubako?) boxes. (a total of four boxes with three compartments each). We initially thought we got two identical sets but when we opened the second box, surprise!  We were totally blown away. All compartments contained many wonderful different dishes. The first one had some cooked dishes, two different kinds of sushi. The cooked dishes in the top tier were still warm.

The second set included fresh sashimi and sashimi fish dishes.

Disclaimer alert:  This entry is just for us to remember what we enjoyed so we can relive the experience. A menu was not included so in some cases I am guessing what the dishes were and may be totally wrong.

We started with sashimi 刺身. Akami 赤身, chu-toro 中トロ, hamachi ハマチ, salmon サーモンand ama-ebi shrimp 甘海老.

From upper left clockwise: grilled ginko nuts 焼銀杏 (We love ginko nuts.We used to be able to buy small cans of boiled ginko nuts but they totally disappeared and we have not seen them for sometime. ), California Uni カルフォルニア雲丹, cod roe たらこ (not a “mentaiko” 明太子 but with some spice), grilled egg plant 焼きナス (it must have also been smoked. It had a nice smokey flavor and the broth was subtly seasoned and delicious ).

Abalone liver simmered with sansho 鮑の肝煮物 (I think this is seasoned with whole sansho pepper 実山椒, a type of “arimani” 有馬煮, this is a perfect drinking snack and we love it, the red berry must be goji berry or “kuko” クコ), sake steamed abalone 鮑の酒蒸し with a nice seasoning , I think the next one is Hokkaido "bafun" uni 北海道のバフンウニ , and under the cover is ikura marinated in soy sauce いくらの醤油漬け. (On one of our visits to the restaurant we had an impromptu uni tasting to compare California vs Maine vs Hokkaido - they are all good but I am a little partial to the Hokkaido uni mostly because I am originally from there. 

From the left upper clockwise: Some kind o pate/paste. I am not sure but monk fish liver ("ankimo" 鮟肝) may be included, some kind of fish liver simmered, edible flower petal (probably chrysanthemum) and chestnut "sibukawa-ni" 渋皮煮.

The dish shown below was a small whole simmered fish with roe, "kanroni" 甘露煮.  I thought this could be "Ayu" sweet fish but it was not.  So, I don't know exactly what it was. It could be "Iwashi" イワシ sardine. It was cooked to tenderness and the bone was soft and could be eaten. It was topped with "shiraga-negi" white hair scallion 白髪葱 . This is an example of the attention to detail characteristic through out these dishes. The scallion was a small detail but it went very well with this fish and really set off the dish.

From the top, kaskino-ha-zushi 柿の葉寿司 (trout sushi wrapped in persimon leaves), flower renkon 花輪レンコン and shime saba oshizushi (battera) しめ鯖の押し寿司 or バッテラ.

Nigiri-sushi 握り寿司. From the top left clockwise: Hamachi ハマチ, Toro トロ, kohada コハダ, sweet omelet, anago with “tsume“ sauce 穴子, and saba サバ or sawara さわら.

Pictured below large prawn/small lobster; probably "botan-ebi" ボタン海老 (raw) in a gentle broth,  topped with myoga, roe (cooked), and julienne of red and green sweet pepper. The sweet pepper and sweet meat went well together complementing each other.

Crab meat, jelle sauce, ikura, slices of dried persimmon 干し柿 and other items. Again, sweetness of the persimmons and crab are good match.

The next three dishes are all cooked and contain some kind of fish/sea food. The selection of ingredients such as the matsutake, myoga, chestnuts and kabocha in these dishes as well the use of eggplant and persimmon in the dishes above exemplify the autumn season.  The use of seasonal ingredients is another example of the attention to detail shown through out the dishes in these boxes. 

Underneath of all the vegetables were two good sized shrimp balls shinjo エビしんじょ(minced shrimp and white fish paste). Fried lotus root, kabocha, simmered "fu" gluten cake, matsutake stems, green beans topped with zest of “kabosu” かぼす.

Simmered “kabu”turnip かぶ, chestnuts 栗 and fish (cod?). The green is most likely “Mizuna” 水菜 .

Small tasty fish (I do not know what it is), simmered, matsutake 松茸, fried shishito ししとう, picked myoga 茗荷の甘酢漬け.

Fortunately, we just got a shipment of sake from Tippsy sake. We had a cold “Kagatobi” 加賀鳶 純米吟醸 from Ishikawa-prefecture 石川県. We throughly enjoyed these wonderful dishes in the comfort of home. It was quite a memorable treat!

Grilled mackerel salad with “Yuzu” mayonnaise 柚子マヨあえ焼き鯖のサラダ

 This is a small salad made of leftover salted and grilled mackerel 鯖の塩焼き. I just came up with this and did not have any recipe.

One interesting thing about this salad is the mayonnaise I used. This is Japanese “yuzu” mayonnaise which I got from one of the gourmet markets through “Instacart”. I added thinly sliced Videlia onion, sliced mini cucumber (both are salted. I let them stand for 5 minutes and then squeezed out the excess moisture). I also added skinned Campari tomato thinly sliced. I dressed the vegetables with the “Yuzu” mayonnaise.  I warmed up the mackerel in the toaster oven. I broke it into bite-size chunks and topped it with a bit more mayo.

I also served 4 additional small dishes. From left to right are blanched green asparagus with sesame dressing, グリーンアスパラガスの胡麻和え simmered Kabocha pumpkin かぼちゃの煮物,  salt broth soaked sugar snap スナップ豌豆の塩びたし and miso-simmered mackerel 鯖の味噌煮.

The salad was really good mainly because of this Japanese “yuzu” mayonnaise. I’ve used up almost half of this mayo already. I took pictures showing the container upside-down. I store it this way so that the contents would come out more easily from the opening.

This is a Japanese style mayonnaise similar in flavors and texture to Kewpie mayonnaise but it contains Japanese “yuzu” citrus juice. This gives a uniquely refreshing flavor. Although fresh Yuzu fruit is difficult to come by, frozen zest and bottled yuzu juice are readily available. I added a bit more yuzu juice to accentuate the flavor.

At first, we are skeptical about this mayonnaise but now we are sold. I even used in our sandwiches with great result.

I think using this with fish like I did here is a great combination. I am thinking of making tartar sauce with this. It should go well with breaded fried fish or Japanese “furai” dish 魚のフライ.

Salted and grilled mackerel 鯖の塩焼き

 Come to think of it, I never cooked mackerel this basic way. When I got two whole Spanish mackerels from HMart via Instacart, there was too much to make it all into the miso-simmered dish 鯖の味噌煮 I usually make. So, I took two filets I prepared from the smaller of the two fish and made this salted and grilled mackerel. I filleted the fish and removed the small pin bones. Then I cut one filet into two and salted both sides. I let it stand for 10 minutes and blotted the surfaces using a paper towel. I made shallow cuts on the skin and re-salted it. Since I do not have a Japanese style fish grill and I did not want to cook fish in the toaster oven, I sautéed the fillets in a frying pan with a small amount of olive oil.

This is a basic simple way of cooking mackerel but it was good. On the side, I added sliced mini-cucumber (salted and moisture squeezed out) dressed in sushi vinegar. Since we had just harvested and pickled myoga, I added it too. This could have gone very well with rice. We had it as a drinking snack with cold sake.

Red wine miso sauce with tuna cutlet 赤ワイン味噌ソースとマグロカツ

I thawed a block "saku" of low-grade yellowfin tuna sashimi. As usual, I tried to make some variation dishes. First I made "zuke" marinated tuna cubes with avocado very similar to one I posted. The second dish was imitation "negitoro " ネギトロ. These two dishes are very good with cold house sake "Tengu-mai"  天狗舞大吟醸.  The third dish I made was tuna cutlet マグロカツ.  I gave a twist to this dish by making a red wine miso sauce and serving it with our relatively new house red wine DAOU Vineyards “Pessimist” Red Blend 2018. I saw the sauce recipe in a digital version of the Japanese newspaper “Asahi “ 朝日新聞. The recipe was written by a sommelier. It is a reduced red wine with miso and he claimed that, with this sauce, the food will go well with red wine. He also suggested fried food would be the best with this sauce. I served tuna cutlet with this sauce accompanied with cucumber and cabbage “asazuke” 浅漬け as well as the cauliflower I usually make and skinned Campari tomato.

The reason I made this sauce was because one of the bottles of red wine we opened recently had a bit  of a musty taste/oder and we decided not to drink it. It was not corked but somehow the handling was not right since other bottles of the same wine were ok. Also we have had this wine so many time in the past with no problems.  In any case, I used a portion of this wine to make a chicken liver dish, a stew of leftover barbecued chicken, and this red wine miso sauce to finish the bottle. Once cooked, the wine lost its mustiness.

Ingredients
Red wine 200 ml
Red miso 2 tbs (I did not have red miso 赤味噌 and used “awase” miso 合わせ味噌)
Mirin 2 tsp
Rice vinegar 2 tsp
light colored soy sauce 2 tsp
Honey 2 tsp or more to taste

Directions
Reduce the red wine in half, dissolve the miso and add other ingredients and adjust sweetness to your liking by adding more honey.

I added more honey than indicated. I had to strain the sauce since it developed some sediments (due to vinegar?). I served it on the fried tuna and the fried taste completely dominated. We actually couldn’t taste the sauce at all. My wife, who never skimps when it comes to the application of sauces actually took to soaking her pieces of tuna in the sauce and said she still couldn’t taste it. Finally, in desperation she slurped it with a spoon and conceded it tasted very nice. I would have expected to at least taste the miso flavor but it was completely muted. I am not sure this may have been because I did not use red miso. In any case, this sauce did not have much flavor but we enjoyed the tuna cutlets with red wine. Since more sauce is left, I may add more miso to see if that will improve the flavor.

Red wine "Zuke" tuna and avocado 鮪の赤ワイン漬けとアボカド

This is part of the continuous effort to use frozen items before they get too old. In the freezer I found this sashimi tuna block which was labeled “best used by August of 2019”. (At July 2020 it was one month short of being a year past its “best by” due date—not too bad). This is one we got from the Japanese grocery store. Recently we tried a similar yellowfin tuna "saku" sashimi block from "Great Alaska Seafood" and I noticed it seemed to contain less water than the ones from the Japanese grocery store. I knew this one would have a high water content, so I thawed it on a rectangular plate lined with paper towel, uncovered, in the refrigerator. The paper towel was soaked when it finished thawing. I made "Negitoro" ネギトロ in the evening. The next evening, from the remaining half, I made this variation/combination of "Zuke" 漬け and "Tuna and avocado cubes" 鮪とアボカドの角切り. Using red wine in the marinade was inspired by the recipe I saw on-line  (In Japanese) and similar in idea to chicken liver simmered in red wine.

I garnished it with chiffonade of perilla and some white sesame.

Ingredients: (appetizers for two)
1/2 block of sashimi tuna (in our case, frozen yellowfin), thawed if frozen, cut into small cubes
1/2 ripe avocado

Marinade:
3 tbs red wine (I had an open California cab).
2 tbs soy sauce (I reduced the soy sauce from the original recipe)
1 tbs mirin
1/4 tsp dark sesame oil

Directions
In a Ziploc bag, add the marinade and tuna cubes. Remove the air as much as possible and let it marinate in the refrigerator for a few hours (in my case, it was close to10 hours).
Just before serving, take out the tuna cubes, blot off the excess marinade using a paper towel.
>Remove the stone and skin from the avocado, cut into bite-sized pieces, dress with either lemon juice or yuzu juice (to prevent discoloration, I used yuzu juice from the bottle).
Mix the tuna and avocado in a bowl ( I added a few more drops of Yuzu juice).
Serve on the perilla leaves and garnish with a chiffonade of perilla and some sesame seeds.

This was pretty good especially considering that the frozen yellowfin tuna which was passed its prime. I thought we would add soy sauce when we ate it but the tuna was nicely seasoned and there was no need to add soy sauce. Since it was marinated in red wine, this could have gone well with red wine but we had cold sake.

Horse mackerel wrapped in perilla leaves 鯵の大葉バター焼き

We defrosted a package of jack mackerel or "aji" 鯵. Although this fish was supposed to be eaten raw as sashimi it had semi-thawed then refrozen when our main refrigerator/freezer went kaput, so I decided I had to cook it The first dish I made was a very standard "aji-no-furai" 鯵のフライ or deep fried breaded aji. 

I served it with home made coleslaw. The fish was crispy on the outside, soft and flavorful on the inside. 

I could have made "Aji-no-nanban" 鯵の南蛮漬け but I also had a small odd shaped piece of salmon (the result of grocery home delivery). When ordering salmon filet on line, I had to specify by 1 lb increments. I ordered 2 lbs of salmon filet which came in 3 pieces; a good size filet, a small filet and 1 inch wide piece of salmon from near the collar. I removed the skin from this odd piece and tail portions of other filets, cut them into bite sized pieces. I dredged them in flour and fried them after I made the deep fried Aji. From the fried salmon pieces, I made "Sake-no-nanban" 鮭の南蛮漬け or salmon marinated in spicy (the one I make is not that spicy) sweet vinegar (right in the picture below). 

After this, I had 4 small filets of "aji" left. I would have made "namerou" なめろう but I wanted a cooked dish. Then, I came across this recipe (in Japanese) which is essentially "namerou" wrapped in perilla leaves and then fried in butter. This was a perfect recipe for me since our perilla is going crazy as usual in our herb garden. So, I made this dish from the remaining "aji" (left in the picture below).

Ingredients: (made 10 half moon packets)
4 raw jack mackerel or "aji" filets (thawed if frozen)
1 tbs miso
1 scallion, finely chopped
1/2 ginger, finely chopped
1/4 tsp soy sauce (optional)
1/4 tsp sugar
10 perilla leaves, washed and dried with stem end removed
Butter for frying

Directions
I first made "namerou" by chopping and pounding the aji with a sharp knife until the aji became a bit pastey. I mixed in the scallion, ginger, miso and sugar and kept pounding until well mixed. You could add a bit of soy sauce to adjust the seasoning and consistency. I placed a small amount of namerou on a perilla leave and folded it into half-moon shape (below)

I fried it in melted butter until the aji namerou was cooked ( a few minutes).

I served a very small and a regular sized piece.

There was not much perilla flavor. The perilla basically served as the “delivery system”. But the filling had a very lovely flavor. The mixture of the fish with the ginger and the miso was pronounced and very good. This is a perfect accompaniment for sipping cold sake. Because of the miso, it is a bit on the salty side which further encourages sipping sake. The next day, I served this cold which was also quite good.