Sashimi from Japanese grocery store 日本食料店からのはまち刺身

I have not physically gone to a grocery store including our Japanese grocery store for almost one year because of the COVID. We are mostly satisfied with our main grocery store delivery service but especially for Japanese or specialized  grocery items, nothing replaces shopping in person. So, now fully vaccinated for sometime, one weekend, I decided to visit our Japanese grocery store and really realized nothing replaces being there and selecting items you are buying. I got so many good Japanese food items (I got a bit carried away). After coming back from the store, we had a lunch of grilled mackerel and rice balls. They were made at the store and were still warm fresh out of their kitchen. I made a miso soup (tofu, shimeji mushroom and abra-age 豆腐、油揚げ、ぶなしめじ) to complete our lunch. This was a very satisfying meal. In the evening, we had "Hamachi" はまちの刺身 yellowtail sashimi which I have not seen  previously at our Japanese grocery store. Since we had a frozen "Ankimo" 鮟肝 which I bought at the Japanese grocery store last time I was there, over a year ago, I decide it was the time to serve it. So, we started the evening with Hamachi sashimi and ankimo with ponzu sauce. I also got a special "Sashimi" soy sauce 刺身醤油 for this.

The hamachi in the picture one serving which is half of the tray I bought. So it is a good amount.  I served cucumber in vinegar dressing and wasabi from the tube. This was quite descent yellowtail sashimi.

I usually serve Ankimo with soy sauce and orange marmalade but the jar of marmalade we had was unopened but expired several years ago. So I served it with Ponzu sauce and green part of scallion as a garnish.

We somehow feel really good that we can get Japanese food items from our Japanese grocery store again. It made us feel like there may be light at the end of this covid tunnel. We really like to start our evening with a little bit of sashimi.

Nagaimo and daikon yukari-ae 長芋と大根のゆかり和え

These are small dishes we started the evening meal. Among the five items I served, only one is new which is in the blue bowl on the upper left. Upper center is squid stuffed with caramelized onion イカの飴色玉ねぎ詰 and tentacles, upper right is chicken liver simmered in red wine 鶏レバーの赤ワイン煮, lower left is sugar snaps soaked in dashi broth スナップ豌豆の塩びたし, and one in the small yellow container looking like a citrus fruit is uni or sea urchin "shuto" from Maruhide 丸秀のウニの酒盗.

This is a new item made from nagaimo and daikon. It is rather interesting and we like it.

As we mentioned before, when this squid dish is cold, I can slice it without separating the stuffing and the squid body. As you can see on the cut surface, quite few squid legs are stuffed. I drizzled our favorite spicy Spanish olive oil.

The below is another "teiban" 定番 in our household, red wine simmered chicken liver. This time I garnished with fresh thin slivers of ginger or "Hari-shouga" 針生姜.

Sugar snaps are good just blanched but this one was soaked in lightly seasoned Japanese broth. When you bite down, instead of water, you can get the subtle taste of the broth which makes an already good veggie nicer.

This is one of the five different kinds of sea urchin or uni "shuto" from Maruhide. When we got fresh uni last time, we also got these "shuto". Although frozen, they won't improve with age, so we have been hitting them regularly. This on is with hot chili and indeed the spiciness creeps up on you afterwards. This is almost as good as fresh uni.

For "Nagaimo no yukari-ae" 長芋のゆかり和えfrom E-recipe. I changed the amount of Yukari thinking the original recipe will make this dish rather salty.

Ingredients (for 2 servings, for the amount shown probably make 4 servings):
1 inch long daikon, peeled, sliced thinly and cut into thin julienne.
1 inch nagaimo, peeled, sliced thinly and cut into thin julienne.
1/2 tsp Yukari salt
1 and 1/2 tbs  sweet vinegar (300ml rice vinegar, 120-150 gram sugar and 5-10 gram salt)

Directions:
Put both the daikon and nagaimo in boiling water. When it comes back to a boil, drain and let it cool in a colander.
Dress with Yukari salt and sweet vinegar.

This is a nice dish. My wife thought everything was nagaimo but this is a mixture of daikon and nagaimo which give an interesting texture difference. Yukari (dried red perilla) salt and sweet vinegar combination is very good giving nice refreshing taste. This is another way to use nagaimo and more interesting than sushi vinegar and aonori combination. In any case, we had cold sake with these starters.

Hanpen stuffed with cheese はんぺんのチーズ焼き

This is a slight variation on what I posted before. "Hanpen" fish cake stuffed with cheese cooked with olive oil and seasoned. I served this with chicken liver simmered in red wine as a starter one evening.

When I made oden おでん a few days ago, I used kelp to make broth. I recycled the used kelp into "tsukudani" 昆布の佃煮 and used it as a topping.

The cheese melted nicely and this was also seasoned with concentrated noodle sauce and grated ginger.

This is the second time I made this chicken liver dish. Although the liver was a bit mangled up into pieces rather than whole lobes and it may not have looked as nice as the last batch I made, it still tasted really good. The red wine I used this time was California cab (I think it was Louis M Martini Cab from Napa  2014). It is not as tannic as what I used last time and the overall dish came out better than the first batch.

I just thawed the "hanpen" fish cake. Cut it into 4 pieces and made a pocket using a small knife and stuffed the pocket with cheese (I think I used double Gloucester). I fried both sides in a small amount of olive oil until golden and the cheese melted. I added a small amount of concentrated noodle sauce (or soy sauce). I added a dab of grated ginger and the kelp tsukudani. This combination is always good. The kelp's slight saltiness went well.

Chicken livers simmered in red wine 鶏レバーの赤ワイン煮

Although chicken livers may not be a very healthy food, both my wife and I like them. So sometimes we buy a small plastic tub full of chicken livers when it is available at the local grocery store. I was thinking of making a re-match of country pate with pork and chicken liver but when I examined the livers, they were pretty good quality without any broken pieces. I changed my mind and decided to make "Yakitori" style with my tare sauce 鶏レバーの焼き鳥. I made this dish from the livers that remained after I made the yakitori. It looks very dark almost black and reminded us of whole truffles, but the inside was still the color of liver. I added freshly ground black pepper just before serving.

The white specks on the surface is ground pepper.

Ingredients:
230 grams (0.5 lb) fresh chicken livers, cleaned, soaked in cold water, cut into bite size.
130 ml red wine (I used Tempranillo since I happened have an already open bottle)
1 tbs Mirin
1 tbs Soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp ginger, finely julienned

Directions:
In a sauce pan, add all simmering liquid ingredients and let it come to a simmer.
In a large amount of boiling water, add the livers and wait until the water comes to a boil again. Remove the livers and place them in the simmering liquid (see below).

Cook/reduce the liquid to a small amount 30 minutes or more (see below).

I did not add freshly ground black pepper while cooking but added it just before serving. I served this dish cold next day with a glass of red wine. This liver had very pleasing dense texture; almost pate-like with some sweetness and nice red wine/tannin flavors. It went perfectly well with a good sturdy red wine. We both really liked this dish.

Country pate 田舎風パテ

This is a country pate. The recipe came from a Japanese web site and used chicken livers and pork. Since we are partial to chicken livers, I decided to try this recipe. I previously made pate with Japanese twists using chicken liver, tofu and "edameme"  soy beans which I posted 2010.

I served this with sliced cornichon pickles and flat bread crackers.

As usual, I deviated from the original recipe.

Ingredients:
1.25 lb of ground pork (original recipe calls for hand chopped pork loin and pork belly)
1.25 lb of chicken livers, washed, cleaned, and soaked in cold milk
1 medium onion, finely diced
1tsp olive oil for sauteing
3-4 tbs Panko Bread crumbs with milk to moisten
2 eggs
1/2 cup shelled pistachio nuts, coarsely chopped
salt and pepper
1/2 tsp thyme (I used dried) and several bay leaves

Directions:
Sautee the onion and crushed garlic in olive oil and season with salt and pepper, remove the garlic and let it cool down. Chop the chicken livers and mix into the ground pork.
On a bane marie of ice water, mix the chicken liver, pork, onion, panko crumbs, pistachio nuts and eggs, dry thyme, salt and pepper and mix well.

In a rectangular loaf pan lined with plastic wrap (this is as per the recipe but I will not use plastic wrap next time, the top which touched the aluminum foil melted), pour in the mixture to 80% and place few bay leaves on top. Cover it with a sheet of aluminum foil tightly.

Bake in a 350F oven in a bain marie (larger rectangular baking pan half way filled with boiling water) for two hours. Let it cool down. (As per the recipe, you are supposed to put weight on the top of the pate but when I did that the juice gushed out so I didn't use the weights).
After 1 day in the refrigerator, I sliced and served it with conichon pickles.

This was not bad but I need to improve on the texture and the flavor (it was a bit too coarse) and (reduced brandy may be nice). Since I made too much, I froze most of it. It thaws out OK but the texture was more "watery" than when it was just made. This was a perfect accompaniment for the cab wine we were enjoying.

Braised chicken liver with garlic chive 鶏レバーとニラの炒め物

Weather in the DC area has been heavenly the past week and, for the first time this year, we had Yakitori 焼き鳥 outside. We did our usual chicken wings, pork with onion, and chicken livers. We also grilled fingerling potatoes and yaki onigiri 焼おにぎり (grilled rice balls). Since our usual grocery store did not have any fresh chicken livers, I went to another gourmet grocery store and got a container of frozen chicken livers. The livers were whole and less damaged or fragmented than the ones from our regular grocery store. In any case, we did not grill all the chicken livers for yakitori so I made this dish since we also had spring garlic chives in our herb garden.

Despite the very generous amount of fresh garlic chive I used, the garlic chive flavor was not as strong as I would have thought it should be.

I did not use any particular recipe, just "winged" it.

Ingredients:

Chicken liver, frozen thawed, washed and soaked in water, cut into bite sized pieces (1 container - about 1 lb minus the two skewers of liver I used for Yakitori).

Garlic, 3 small cloves, finely chopped 

Garlic chive, cut into 1 inch lengths (Picture below)

Sake

Mirin

Soy sauce

Black pepper, freshly ground

Directions:

The chicken livers were a bit bloody after thawing but all the livers were intact and in much better shape than the usual chicken livers we get. I cut the livers into bite sized pieces and soaked them in cold filtered water changing the water several times. I blotted off the moisture with sheets of paper towel and seasoned the livers with salt and black pepper. In a frying on medium flame, I put in vegetable oil. Once the oil heated, I placed the liver in the pan and turned it several times until all the sides changed color. Then I added the garlic. After several minutes of stirring, I added sake (1 tbs) and put on the lid to steam (below). After a minutes or so, I removed the lid and turned up the flame and let the liquid evaporate.  

I added the garlic chive and stirred for few minutes.

I added mirin and soy sauce and further reduced the liquid while shaking the pan.

Once the liquid reduced just coating the liver, I cut the heat and seasoned further with freshly ground black pepper. I tasted it and decided I did not need to adjust the seasoning.

For the libation, we chose Joseph Phelps Pino Noir,  Freestone Vineyard, 2013. Since we are a member of the wine club, we just received this Pinot from them. I thought this could go well with this dish. This pinot predominantly tasted of red fruits (cherry, raspberry and also a hint of strawberry) upfront and showed an almost effervescent acidity with some spice elements. This went well with slightly "iron-ny" liver with sweet /salty and peppery savory seasoning.

The only disappointment I had with this dish was that the garlic chive flavor did not come through much at all. Maybe, I have to add more garlic chive just before cutting the flame. For that matter, I did not taste garlic that much either. We thought this frozen liver was quite good and even better than the "fresh" liver we get from our regular grocery store which appears to be roughly handled resulting in many fragmented pieces. This dish is similar to one I posted before with onion and garlic. We like both.

Candied duck liver and gizzard

The whole duck we rotissed for Christmas, came with most of its parts—the liver and gizzard tucked in its cavity. I decided to use these in a small appetizer which was inspired by the dish we had at Nojo restaurant in San Francisco. I think, for my first try, this was quite a success but it was a bit too sweet and I will need to further modify the recipe.



Duck liver and gizzard: For the liver, I removed any veins and fat from the surface and cut it into small bite sized pieces. For the gizzard, I removed the silver skin and sliced it rather thinly against the grain of the muscle.

Deep frying: I essentially made tempura. I first dredged the liver and gizzard. I made a rather thick tempura batter with cold water, cake flour and small amount of potato starch. I deep fried (350F vegetable oil) the pieces for a few minutes until they were cooked through and the crust was crispy and golden brown.

Sauce: I added honey (1tsp) and maple syrup (1/2 tsp) and water (2tbs) in a small frying pan over medium flame. After the honey and maple syrup blended, I added hot sauce (Sriracha). I added about 1/2 tsp but the amount is arbitrary and to taste. As the sauce reduced and thickened, I added the fried duck liver and gizzard and coated all the surfaces with the sauce (see the below picture).



This was quite good. The crust was very crispy and provided a nice crunch in contrast to the softness of the liver. Although the dish was a bit too sweet from the sauce, there was a nice slow heat from the Sriracha. The liver was good without any gamey flavor. I am sure I can do this with chicken livers. The gizzard was firm but added a nice contrast in texture to the liver. My wife usually does not like gizzard but this one she liked because of the thin slice. I may have to drizzle the sauce over the fried liver to make it less sweet next time.

Yakitori, two kinds 焼き鳥２種類、レバたれ、笹身のシソ梅肉

I started this blog with “Yakitori” posts 3 years ago. I also posted about our surrogate “Izakaya” “Tako Grill”.  Last year, to our surprise, Chef Kudo went back to Japan for good and opened up his restaurant “タコグリルTako Grill” in the small town he originally came from called “Kuroishi” 黒石 in Aomori prefecture 青森県. Now Mr. Terry Segawa 瀬川哲紀 who mostly took care of the business side of Tako Grill is more involved in the kitchen. He added quite nice Izakaya type snacks to the menu (actually, he now has a special Izakaya menu). When Terry is behind counter, he often offers something “off the menu”. These dishes are different and quite nice; one evening it was Yakitori (chicken liver and hearts). My wife really likes chicken liver Yakitori, which I have not made for some time. This prompted me to make these small yakitori skewers on weekend.
When I barbecue whole chickens, I usually discard the neck, gizzards and liver which are packaged in paper and tucked inside the cavity. (These are usually meant for making the American classic gravy-with-giblets). This time, I used the liver to make this small Yakitori while we are waiting for the whole chickens to finish cooking.

Since the Webber grill was otherwise occupied with the whole chickens and the mosquitos were still around making me reluctant to stand around outside tending the grill, I cooked these Yakitori in the toaster oven in “Hi-broil”.

Chicken liver: I removed attached fat, vessels etc and soaked them in sake for 20-30 minutes. I used a flat metal skewer. From two whole chickens, there was enough liver to make two small skewers (picture below).

Sauce: I made quick “tare” たれ or dipping sauce. It is a mixture of sake (1 tbs) mirin (1 tbs), sugar (2 tsp) and soy sauce (1 tbs). I first heated the sake and mirin mixture to boil, then dissolved sugar and added soy sauce. I then made a potato starch slurry (katakuriko 片栗粉 or potato starch plus sake). I streamed it in until the sauce was slightly thickened.

Chicken tenderloins: This is a variation of shiso and salted plum roll 梅しそ巻き which I previously posted. Instead of making it into a roll, I butterflied the chcken tenderloins, lined it with 1 or 2 leaves of perilla and smeared bainiku 梅肉 (I removed the meat of umeboshi 梅干 plum and minced it into paste with a small amount of mirin to make it a paste consistency). After closing the butterflied portions, I used a sawing motion to thread the skewer (see below).

I cooked the skewers on Hi-broil in the toaster oven (with the upper heating elements about 1 inch from the skewers) turning once or twice for 10-15 minutes. For the liver,  I coated the surface of the cooked liver with the dipping sauce and broiled it for one more minute turning once. I put on one more coat of “tare” sauce and sprinkled “sansho” 山椒 or powdered Szechwan pepper corn on the liver.

This was a perfect appetizer to eat while we waited for the chicken to cook. Sometimes the liver included in the packet found in the cavity of a whole chicken is not fresh and is all broken up, but I should check it before discarding. This was perfectly good chicken liver.

Sautéed Monk fish medallion and liver アンコウのメダリオンとあん肝のソーテー

Monkfish or "ankou" 鮟鱇 is not a very popular fish in the U.S. and unlike in Japan,  the only portion of fish being sold and consumed is the tail meat. For Japanese, the most precious part of monk fish is, of course, the liver. The most common preparation of ankou in Japan must be ankou nabe アンコウ鍋, in which most of the various parts of the fish including skin and liver beside the meat are used. Here is the iron chef Morimoto showing off his skill of disassembling this rather ugly deep sea bottom dwelling fish.

In any case, we have not seen monkfish for some time in the grocery stores but, the other day, we happened to come across fresh monkfish fillets at a near-by market and got it. I have posted several ways of cooking monkfish fillets as well as liver (not raw but previously processed and frozen, which is the only monkfish liver I can get my hands on. Since we had a package of frozen monkfish liver or ankimo あん肝 in the freezer, I decided to make a dish with the both monkfish fillet as well as liver.

Monk fish fillet: I removed the grey slippery membrane which covers one side (skin side) of the fillet without wasting too much meat underneath. If you do not removed this, it will became a tough membrane after cooking and will also shrink more than the meat. I marinated the cleaned fillets in sake for 24 hours (Since I could not cook this immediately, this is a good way to preserve and also removed any fishy smell). Next day, I removed the fillets, dried them with a paper towel, cut into 1 inch think medallions. I seasoned with salt and pepper.

Monk fish liver: This comes in a cylindrical shape in a plastic wrap (shaped into cylindrical shape and steamed) then vacuum packed in an aluminum pouch. I just defrosted it in running cold water. I made 1 inch thick medallions to match the size of the monk fish fillet medallions and dredged in flour.

Cooking: I put light olive oil in a frying pan on low heat and fried three garlic cloves (smashed) for 5-8 minutes until the garlic flavor is transferred to the oil. I then took the garlic out of the pan. I turned the flame to medium high and put in the monkfish fillet and liver medallions. I cooked for less than one minute on each sides and finished in a 400F oven for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes were up, I let it rest for 5 minutes (This is one of the rare fish which, like meat, benefits from resting after cooking).

Sauce: I thought about making a Ponzu-based sauce but settled for my ususal sauce made of orange marmalade and soy sauce.  I first put orange marmalade (3 tbs, I used a “fancy” marmelade with large orange peels in it) in a small frying pan on low heat and added just a small amount of hot water (1 tsp) to facilitate the melting. When the orange marmalade was melted, I added soy sauce (1 tsp). This may sound like a very sweet sauce but it goes well with monkfish liver (or duck breast).

I placed three medallions of monk fish fillets on the bottom and topped each pieces with monk fish liver and drizzled the sauce as you see in the first picture. This is a great dish if I say so myself. The firm texture of the fillets is like lobster tail and the liver is like foie gras, soft, buttery and unctuous. This combination is sublime and the sauce went perfectly. Although this dish could go well with a nice acidic and crisp white wine such as sauvignon blanc, we were drinking cold sake at this point, which was great with this dish.

Of course, before this dish, I served ankimo in a very simple traditional way with ponzu, grated daikon which was sprinkled with Japanese one flavored red pepper flakes or ichimi tougrashi 一味唐辛子. This was mighty fine too!

Chicken liver and tofu terrine 鶏レバーのテリーヌ風

Believe it or not this recipe came from "Appetizers and a la carte small dishes for Izakaya" by Tadashi Shinojima.  Judging from the title of the book, by definition, this must be an Izakaya food. Although this looks and tastes like a chicken liver pate (actually it is more pate than terrine), there are a few Japanese touches; one is the inclusion of tofu and the other is the addition of "edamame" 枝豆. Since I bought a container of chicken livers for Yakitori, I decided to make this dish; a situation similar to the previous time I made braised chicken liver and onion.

I used about 180 grams of chicken liver. After removing the fat and connective tissue, I soaked it in ice cold water for 15 minutes. I added a bit of sake to the water and boiled the liver for 4-5 minutes until thoroughly cooked. Meanwhile, I wrapped a firm or "momengoshi" tofu 木綿ごし豆腐 in paper towels and microwaved it for several minutes. I re-wrapped it in new paper towels and placed a heavy plate on the top for 10 minutes to squeeze out any excess water. I used about 150 grams (after removing the excess water) of tofu. In the mixing cup of an immersion blender, I added the cooked liver (180grmas), tofu (150grams), beaten egg (1/3), cream (1 tbs), grated onion (1 tbs), salt and pepper and blended them until smooth. I then folded in the shelled edamame (I used about 20 of the frozen kind, cooked and shelled). I also added small cubes of left over steak (the recipe called for cubes of roast beef).  I then poured the mixture into small (disposable) loaf pan and baked for 30 minutes in a preheated 400F oven in a bain-marie. The original recipe was a bit vague about how this dish is to be cooked (the author said "mushiyaki" 蒸し焼き or steam-bake in an oven) but I interpreted this to mean bake using a bain-marie. I let it cool down to room temperature and stored it in the refrigerator overnight before slicing.

The recipe suggested serving this with a "white cream sauce" but I chose to serve it like a pate with cornichon pickles on toasted small squares of cocktail bread. The texture is great and the edamame and cubes of steak made an interesting texture contrast and color. If you are not told, you would not have guessed that close to half the bulk came from "tofu". It has a nice irony liver pate taste but it needs more distinctive spices (maybe more onion, black pepper and salt). For a fusion pate with tofu, this is not bad. Does Tofu make this dish a healthier dish? - maybe.

Braised Chicken liver and onion 鶏の肝とタマネギの炒め煮

In recent years, the mosquitoes have become extremely bad in our area. We used to sit outside in summer but now we can barely sit outside without being eaten alive. So, right now (April and May) is the only time of the year when the weather is warm enough but the mosquitoes are not out yet. We decided to do "Yakitori" 焼き鳥  this weekend on our deck. The chicken liver we got this time must not have been handled well and many pieces were all fragemtned and not suitable for "Yakitori". Although I could have made chopped liver, that could have caused some ethnic confusion. So, I decided to make this dish from the fragmented parts and we had it as the first dish before "Yakitori". I think this dish is appropriate for any Izakayas

After cleaning and washing the liver well, I soaked it in ice cold water for 10 - 15 minutes. After draining, I soaked the liver in sake (I use "Gekeikkan" 月桂冠 brewed in California for cooking) for 20 minutes or so to remove any unpleasant smell. I drained and put the livers on a paper towel to remove any excess moisture. The fragmented portions of the liver I got from one container of chicken livers were about 1/2 lb after this preparation. Besides the chicken liver, I used coarsely chooped onion (two small), finely chopped ginger and garlic (1 tsp each), garlic chives "nira" 韮 (about 1/4 cup chopped, from our garden).  I put penut oil (1 tbs) with a splash of dark sesame oil in a non-stick frying pan and put it on a medium high flame and added the onions and sautéed for 5 minutes until it becam soft and edges browned. I then added the garlic chives, garlic, and ginger and sautéed another 2-3 minutes and set aside. I cleaned the pan with a paper towel and added another tbs of penuts oil and put it on a medium high flame. When the oil was hot and shimmering, I added all the liver pieces and sauteed until the surface changed color (2-3 minutes). I like this portion of cooking to occur at rather high heat so that the juices will not come out. I added the sauteed vegetables back into the pan and added 2 tbs of mirin, 2 tbs of soy sauce and 2 tbs of sake. I stirred and flipped until the liquid reduces to 1/3 and became somewhat viscous. I could have added corn starch slurries here but I did not. After I put it in a serving bowl, I added cracked white pepper and thinly sliced scallion as a garnish. It is sort of onion and liver in a Japanese style. I did not follow any recipe but this flavor combination appears very common among Japanese dishes. This is a very good dish. 

We enjoyed it with a glass of a rather rustic turbid sake or "nigori sake" 濁り酒 from Kyoto Kizakura brewery 京都黄桜 "snow maiden" "Tozai Yuki musume" 東西雪娘 . Perfect pairing! It has tropical fruit on the palate with a slight sweetness but very straight forward sake. We continued with "Yakitori" with this sake. This rather simple but rustic sake is very enjoyable with down-to-earth dishes like Yakitori. The only strange thing about this sake is that it came in a pastel "pink" bottle and the label said it was named after a 226 year old carp (yes, a carp, see in the picutre) named "Hanako" meaning "flower child" (Although "Hanako" 花子 is a generic female Japanese name--you'll never meet a woman named "Hanako" much like you never meet a dog named pooch or rover--No direct comparison or offense meant or implied here. The person who came up with this name may have been at Woodstock). I am sure this is another one of those "bottled for export only" items. I wish the color of the bottle wasn't quite so pink and it was named after something more along the lines of Yeti or "Yuki otoko" 雪男.

Yakitori donburi 焼き鳥丼

Yakitori donburi 焼き鳥丼

This a quick "donburi" dish using left over "Yakotori". "Donburi" 丼, which is often shorten to "don", refers to a large (relative to a regular rice bowl) Japanese bowl, like the one seen below. It can also refer to the food placed in the bowl. The basic construction of a "donburi" dish is a bed of cooked rice with whatever toppings may be available accompanied by a small amount of savory sauce. This is a very typical "whole-meal-in-a-bowl" affair. Many Japanese fast food chain restaurants are specialized in this type of dish. Am

ong the most popular are "oyako donburi" 親子丼, which is a combination of chicken and egg  ("oyako" means "mother and offspring", for obvious reason), "gyudon" 牛丼 which is made with small cut-up pieces of seasoned beef, "ten-don" 天丼 which is topped with "tempura", and "katsu-don" カツ丼 which features breaded and deep fried pork cutlet called "tonkatsu". Although I have not tried it, "Yakitori donburi" is reportedly served as a lunch item in a famous Yakitori restaurant in Tokyo. This dish appears to place freshly made Yakitori (2-5 skewer-worth depending on the price) on the bed of rice with some Yakitori "tare" sauce.

When we make Yakitori at home,  we usually will have a good amount of left-overs. When I have thigh or liver left over from a barbecue, I make my version of Yakitori donburi. (I save the left-over barbecued wings and drumettes to re-heat in the toaster oven to eat crispy and hot by themselves). If I have grilled vegetables I add them to the donburi as well.

This time, I used left-over Yakitori liver,  thinly sliced onion, shiitake  mushroom, and greens (here, I used arugula but spinach, broccoli, green beans, snow pea all work well). In a small frying pan, arrange the ingredients except for fast cooking greens such as spinach and arugula. Add a mixture of mirin, dashi, and soy sauce in about equal amounts (or use a commercial Japanese noodle sauce diluted with water). Please make sure that the broth is not too salty since it will reduce during cooking). The liquid should just barely cover the ingredients, cover the pan and simmer until the onion is soft and cooked (10 minutes). Add the greens to cook just for few minutes. At this point, the broth should be reduced to a small amount. My wife likes more broth/sauce than I do. I like just a small amount of strong tasting sauce to moisten the underlying rice rather than enough sauce to make the rice too wet. It's a personal preference, however, and the initial strength and amount of the broth need to be adjusted accordingly. Slide the topping and sauce on the bed of hot rice. I sprinkle "sansho" powder which is a Japanese version of finely ground Sichuan pepper.

Yakitori 焼き鳥 Part 3

Chicken Skin 雛皮

We love cripsy skin of any kind very much. This is a common yakitori item made of just chicken skin.  But to make it all nicely crunchy without causing flared up when it cooks, which gives it a gasoline-taste,   requires some preparaion. You can use any part of the skin but I usually use the thigh part. To remove any strong smell and to render out some of the excess fat, the skin is placed in salted boiling water with some sake. (Although I have not tried, some people use roasted brown tea or "bancha" 番茶 for this.) I boil the skin a good 5-7 minutes until I see fat floating on the surface. Wash the skin in cold water and pat dry. Next question is how to skewer the pieces. Most yakitori-ya, apear to make multiple folds or make a stack of small square pieces of skin on skewers but, for us, this does not work well since the skin does not get crunchy throughout. Instead the edges of the squares or tops of the folds get too singed and the insides of the folds are soft. You see how we did it in the pictures. You need to avoid flare-ups while grilling by moving them to colder areas of the grill.

Chicken liver 肝 きも

Chicken liver is our (especially my wife's), favorite. Again, it requires some prepping and this is my version. Fortunately, chicken liver is very cheap and comes in plastic tubs at most grocery stores near us. But unfortunately, you need to carefully sort out the fragmented and blemished parts and remove any fat, vessels, connective tissue attached to it. Then soak it in ice water for 10-15 minutes. I then use a marinade consisting of equal parts mirin plus sake and soy sauce with grated ginger root (sort of teriyaki marinade but not very sweet). I marinade the liver for a couple of hours in the refrigerator. When skewering the liver paying attention to some details can help. As you can see in this picture, either I use metal yakitori skewers with flat surface (4 sewers on left) or use two bamboo skewers (two on right) to prevent the liver from rotating when it is turned. I spray the metal grills with a non-stick spray (I use a Weber brand which works best). Attention to these details will result in a lovely textured chicken liver--nice grilled surface with a creamy center, and lots of flavor. We should have some more discussion regarding sake and wine later but the liver goes extremely well with red wine. This evening, we had Syrah from Languedoc, Domaine Famille Ligneres Montagne d'Alaric "Notre Dame" 2004, before switching to sake.