Couscous with fresh mint ミント入りクスクスサラダ

This combination of greens and salads was our lunch on one weekend. Among the three salads, salmon salad and potato salad are our usual but couscous salad with fresh mint is new. The greens are home-grown arugula, blanched broccoli, and sugar snaps. For color, I added skinned Campari tomato. After taking the pictures, I added my honey mustard dressing on the greens.

The couscous recipe came from WP food section as a way to use mint from your yard which may be profusely growing at this time of the year. The original included frozen sweet peas but we omitted it. Since we planted mint late spring this year, this was a recipe we had to try. The lunch included cheese muffins my wife made some time ago.  (She just realized we did not post the muffin recipe).

Ingredients (2 servings, for us more like 4-6 servings)
3/4 cup dried plain couscous.
1 cup chicken broth (our usual Swanson no salt and no fat kind).
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbs butter
1/4 cup finely minced fresh mint leaves.
1/4 tbs chopped parsley.

For dressing
1/4 cup live oil
1/4 rice vinegar
black pepper

Directions:
let the chicken broth with the salt, butter come to boil and add the couscous, remove from the heat and let it steep with the lid on for 15 minutes. Use a folk to fluff the grains and let it cool.
Add the minced mint and parsley (see below).

Mix the oil and vinegar together.

Mixed it into the couscous.

This is very refreshing couscous salad. Because of the dressing, it is not too dry and there is no danger of inhaling it (which can happen when eating dry couscous). Especially with the combination of other salads and greens, this is a really nice summer lunch. Once the salads are made up, it is a cinch to put together a lunch without having to do any cooking.

Potato salad stuffed "chikuwa" fish cake 熊本惣菜ちくわサラダ

I saw this recipe on line. According to the recipe, this was invented by a side-dish store (called "Sozai-ya" 惣菜屋 ) of  Kumamoto city 熊本市 on Kushu Island 九州, the southern most island of Japan. It was invented as a way to use up an excess amount of potato salad. Since I had frozen "chikuwa 竹輪" fish cake and leftover potato salad, I made this one weekend. The original recipe calls for chopped boiled eggs in the potato salad but I just used my usual potato salad which included myouga 茗荷 in sweet vinegar (home grown, harvested and made) and rakyo ラッキョウ, Japanese cocktail onion in sweet vinegar (store bought).

The recipe suggested tartar sauce or "chu-nou" sauce 中濃ソース but I only had "tonakatsu sauce".

Ingredients:
Three "chikuwa"fish cakes (frozen, I had one open package with three left), thawed (#1).
Potato salad (enough to stuff the three chikuwa (#3)
Oil for deep frying
Tempura batter (3 tbs of cake flour and about 1/3 cup cold water or additional water as needed to obtain the appropriate thickness of the batter).
Tonkatsu sauce

Directions:
Slit open the sides of the chikuwa along the length (#2).
Stuff the opening with the potato salad (#3) (over stuffing is recommended to get the right ratio of fish cake to potato salad).
Dredge in the tempura batter and deep fry until the crust is done and crispy (#4). Do not over fry since the fish cake may expand.
Drain the oil (#5).
Cut on bias into two pieces and serve (#6).

This is a good combination. I served this with skinned Campari tomato and baby arugula. The center was still cold (which was good). This is definitely a nice snack. After we ate one each, we went back to finish off the third and last one.

Fried taro root cake in broth 里芋まんじゅうの揚げ出し

This recipe is again from "a Buddhist  Monk" which regularly appears in Asahi-shinbun Japanese newspaper. Since I got taro root or "sato-imo" 里芋 from our regular grocery store and saw this recipe video, making this dish was a "no-brainer". I did not follow the original recipe precisely since I only had oyster mushroom (it calls for shimeji mushroom).

For  greens, I used blanched rapini instead of spinach just because I had it.  Of course, I did not used vegetarian broth and instead used bonito and kelp broth. I also did not have edible lily roots called "Yuri-ne" 百合根 or wood ear mushroom "ki-kurage" 木耳 which were called for in the original recipe.

Ingredients (for 5 dumplings):
Sato-imo "taro", 4 medium, peeled, parboiled and washed in cold running water (to reduce the slimy surface).
Fresh mushrooms (Original recipe calls for Shimeji mushroom, I used oyster mushroom), arbitrary amount.
Green vegetables (Original recipe calls for spinach, I used blanched rapini), arbitrary amount.
Dashi broth 200ml (I used a "kelp and bonito flakes" dash pack but to make it a vegetarian dish one can use kelp broth)
Soy sauce 1 tbs
Mirin 1/2 tbs
Prepared chestnuts, 5, (I used bottled preserved chestnuts in syrup called "kuri-no-kanroni" 栗の甘露煮 (#1 below), cut into small chunks.
Potato starch or "Katakuri-ko" かたくり粉 for dredging.
Oil for deep frying

Directions:
I added the parboiled sato-imo into the seasoned broth and cooked for 15-20 minutes or until a tooth pick goes through easily.  I let it cool down in the broth and mashed it in a Japanese suri-bachi mortar すり鉢 then mixed in the chestnuts (#2).
I made small flat rounds (#3), dredged in potato starch and deep fried in 350 F oil for 3-4 minutes until the surface was nicely browned (#4).
I addeds the green and mushroom in the broth the sato-imo was cooked in and heat it up for a few minutes. I tasted and adjusted the seasoning (I added a small amount of additional soy sauce).
I placed the sato-imo cake in a serving bowl and arranged the mushrooms and the greens then
poured the warm broth over everything and served.

This is a very nice and interesting dish. The sato-imo cake has a thin crust, very soft creamy texture with the chestnuts being nicely firm and sweet. I think the blanched rapini with its slight bitter distinctive taste went better than spinach would have. This is also a rather filling dish.

Flash un Kas (pastry rolls) appetizers

My wife was flipping through her old PA Dutch cookbooks looking for Fastnacht recipes when this one caught her eye. She was intrigued by the combination of cream cheese and butter and wanted to see what it tasted like so she came up with these pastry rolls called "Flash un Kas".

Ingredients for the flash un kas (pastry)
1/2 lb. butter
1/2 lb cream cheese
2 cups flour

Filling:
First roll up:
Lebanon Bologna
Smoked mozzarella cheese
double glouster cheese

Second roll up:
mashed potatoes
gorgonzolla cheese

Directions:
for the pastry: cream the butter and cream cheese together until well blended mix in the flour until the dough is smooth. Roll out the dough and put it in a square gallon size storage bag and push the dough until it fills the entire bag. (This will make the dough square in shape and easier to roll out). Chill thoroughly; overnight is not too long.

Roll out the dough into rectangles about 8 x 10.  In the first roll-up the filling can be placed several ways.

#1 put the bologna topped with cheese on the bottom edge of the rectangle and roll it up. Seal the edge and using a sharp knife cut into rounds #2. Put on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. (We found that with this type of roll-up there is nothing to support the cheese at it melts and a lot of it ran out).

#3 spread the bologna over the entire rectangle and top with the cheeses grated. Roll up and again cut into rounds #4. Place rounds on cookie sheet. (With this type of roll-up the cheese is less likely to run out as it melts)

#5 blend the mashed potatoes and gorgonzolla cheese until it forms a smooth paste. Spread over the entire rectangle. Roll up the dough cut into rounds #6 and put rounds on the cookie sheet

Cook at 400 degrees until golden about 15 to 20 minutes. Pictures #7 to #10 show the rounds after they have been cooked.

All of these were very good. The potato and gorgonzolla ones were a surprise. They were probably the best of the lot. The potatoes absorbed the cheese flavor and made a nice texture with the pastry. The bologna had a nice strong smokey flavor that went very well with the mild taste of the pastry. This pastry is very versatile. It is easy to work with and has a mild almost sweet flavor.

Braised Japanese sweet yam with pork さつま芋と豚肉のきんぴら

I made this dish since we had leftover Japanese sweet yam. I braised this like I would "gobo" burdock root.

I could have added deep fried tofu or abura-age to the dish to make it vegetarian but I used strips of pork instead and garnished it with black sesame (white sesame may have been better).

Ingredients:
Japanese "satsumaimo" sweet yam, washed and thinly sliced and then julienned (amount arbitrary, here I used 1/3 of medium yam)
Pork cut into strips (again the amount is arbitrary, I used pork tenderloin but pork belly would be better).
2 tsp peanuts oil and 1/4 tsp of dark sesame oil
2 tsp each of soy sauce and mirin

Directions:
In a wok, add oil and heat up on medium high flame. Once the oil is heated up, add the pork and stir until the color changes. Add the sweet yam and stir to coat (below picture).

Add the mirin and then the soy sauce and braise until most of the liquid is gone (see below).

Compared to a classic burdock root kinpira, this one is still bit crunchy and fresh tasting. Perfect small dish for Japanese sake.

Japanese sweet potato rolls さつま芋ロール

My wife found Japanese sweet potato (satsuma-imo) at Whole Foods and had to get them. We like these kind of sweet potatoes because they have firmer flesh than U.S. yams and are very sweet. We made a few of our usual dishes from them. One is cooking them in the Weber grill when we grill chicken. Simply, wash, prick all over with a fork (so they don't explode while cooking), wrap them in aluminum foil and stick them in the Weber at the same time the chicken is put in. By the time, the chicken is done the potato is also done. We grilled 4 sweet potatoes this way one weekend. We ate some of the sweet potato with the chicken for dinner. The next day, my wife made these sweet potato rolls with the leftovers. Although the rolls are based on a recipe she found, as my wife was making these rolls she realized she had lots of extra sweet potato. Since she is particularly fond of rolls with surprise fillings she decided to put the extra sweet potato into the center of the the roll as shown. It turned out to be quite successful.

Although she did not add any sugar to the sweet potato filling, it is really sweet and reminded me of "white anko paste" or "shiro-an" 白あん made of white beans grown in Hokkaido.

Ingredients:
8 ounces sweet potato. The sweet potato is divided 1/2 cup for the bread and about 2 cups to use as filling in the bread)
4 1/2 teaspoons (two 1/4-ounce packets) active dry yeast
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup warm water (110 to 115 degrees)
3 large eggs
3 tablespoons melted unsalted butter
1 teaspoon salt
3 to 3 1/2 cups flour, plus more for the work surface
Oil, for greasing the proofing bowl.

Directions:
We cooked 3 Japanese sweet potatoes wrapped in aluminum foil in the Weber grill when we barbequed chicken one weekend. Let cool, then peeled and thoroughly mashed in a food mill so it is smooth. You should have 1/2 cup of flesh.

Combine the yeast with 1 tablespoon of the sugar and the warm water in the bowl of a stand mixer; proof for 5 minutes.  Add 2 eggs and beat on low speed, then add the remaining 3 tablespoons of sugar, the butter and salt. Beat on low speed for about 2 minutes (no need to scrape down the bowl), then add the sweet potato and beat for about 1 minute. Add 1 cup of the flour at a time, beating to form a slightly stiff dough that has pulled away from the sides of the bowl; add flour as needed.

Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface; knead for 2 to 3 minutes. When it is smooth and springy, shape it into a ball. Use oil to lightly grease the inside of a large bowl, then place the dough in it, turning it to coat evenly. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap; let the dough rest for about 1 hour or until it has doubled in size. The dough will be ready when you can push 2 fingers into it and the indentations remain.

Punch down the dough. Cut into pieces weighing about 2 oz. each. Flatten the dough (#1) and put a small scoop of the extra, sweet potato (#2) in the middle (#3). Pinch the dough around the sweet potato ball and form into a roll (#4). Place in a greased baking dish. Cover with plastic wrap; let the rolls rise for 45 minutes to 1 hour or until doubled in size. Cook in a preheated oven of 375 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes until golden.

These rolls were wonderful. Very light with a lovely mild sweetness. The center of sweet potato was a really good addition. It was soft and also sweet.

Hasselback potato with flat iron steak ハッセルバックポテト

One weekend, my wife assumed my usual duty of foraging for food and went to the grocery store in my place. She came back with, among other things, a bag of Russet potatoes and a flat iron steak. Another "meat and potato" dinner was inevitable. Since my wife had just recently made crispy roasted potatoes, we wanted to try something different and decided to make "Hasselback" potatoes.

They came out nice. A whole potato, however, is more than we could handle, so we shared one. This was cooked in olive oil and bacon drippings.

Since we had not made this dish before, I consulted several recipes on line and came up with this one.

Ingredients:
Russet potato (we cooked two at a time)
Olive oil and bacon dripping (optional)
Salt and pepper
Herbs of your choice (may be rosemary), we used parsley in the end.

Directions:
To open up the leaves of potato, it appears the secret is to cut off the bottom (#1).
Placing two chop sticks (disposable) one front and one in back of the potato, I cut 1/4 inch multiple slices without cutting completely through the potato (apparently gadgets to cut Hasselback potatoes are available). I used the small cut piece as a small pillow (#3).
I brushed olive oil between the leaves of potatoes and seasoned it with salt and pepper.
I baked it for 1 hour at 425 F in a convection oven (we used our toaster oven on convection mode).
I basted the potatoes a few times. The last 30 minutes I based the potatoes with bacon drippings (#3 and 4).
I garnished it with chopped parsley.

For the flat iron steak, I seasoned with with salt and pepper, slices of garlic and fresh rosemary (see below) and let it warm up to room temperature for 1 hour. I removed the garlic slices before cooking the steak in a frying pan to medium rare doneness.

The meat and potatoes were good but the Hasselback potato is mostly for show. It tasted like a good potato. The flat iron steak was good with rosemary and garlic flavors.

Gnocchi ニョキ

When we barbecue chicken, we often bake potatoes. Since we had fairly large Russet potatoes, my wife just wrapped them in aluminum foil and we put them into the Weber next to the chicken. By the time the chicken was done (about 1 hour and 15-30 minutes), the potatoes were perfectly cooked. She made them to mashed potatoes with a Japanese touch i.e. liberal applications of soy sauce and butter. We love the crispy skin of barbecued chicken particularly when it just comes out of the Weber.  So, we immediately started snacking by making small rolls of mashed potatoes sprinkled with chopped chives wrapped in the crispy skin of the barbecued chicken. By the time we were ready to carve the chicken, we had mostly finished the dinner standing up eating the potato rolls with our fingers. In any case, my wife made gnocchi from the leftover mashed potatoes a few days later. As an ending dish of the evening, I served gnocchi with sage butter, meatballs I made that day and asparagus.

This gnocchi was more like sautéed in sage butter rather than swimming in sage brown butter. Although we grow sage in our herb garden, we used dried sage this time.

I made the meatballs from the trimmings of pork tenderloin. This time, I made my marinara sauce from skinned and diced Campari tomatoes instead of canned tomatoes.

Gnocchi
Ingredients:
16 oz. of mashed potatoes (3 cups)
4 oz. of AP flour (3/4 cup)
1 egg
1 tsp. salt

Ingredients X 1 1/2
24 oz. (1 lb. 8 oz.) of mashed potatoes 
1 1/8 cup of AP flour (may need more to make a workable dough)
2 eggs
1 1/2  tsp. salt

Ingredients X 2
32 oz. (2 lb.) of mashed potatoes 
1 1/2  cup of AP flour (may need more to make a workable dough) (I actually used 2 1/4 and it worked out        OK)
3 eggs
2  tsp. salt




Directions:
Press the mashed potatoes through a sieve. Add the flour and gently mix with a fork. Add the egg and salt and again gently mix with a fork until everything comes together into a dough.
Gently roll into 1/2 inch diameter logs. Cut into the desired size.
The pieces can be rolled on the back of a fork to make ridges to better hold the sauce but that didn't work out so well so our pieces generally didn't have any ridges.
Fill the dutch oven with water. Add 1 Tbs. Salt and several bay leaves. Bring the water to a boil. Lower the heat and gently add the gnocchi to the water. Heat just below the boil  for a few minutes in salted water until they float to the surface. Then remove from the water and put into the sauce.  Or for use later put in a bowl and coat with olive oil to prevent them from sticking together. 

This was really very good. They had a lovely light texture and the potato taste really came through. These were so easy to make and were so good they will definitely appear on the menu again. 

Crispy Roasted Potato with thyme クリスピイローストポテト

This is a variation of Hasselback potato. We were having filet mignon steak for dinner. My wife likes to have some kind of potato side dish with steak to maintain her "meat and potato" aficionado credentials.  We felt a bit too lazy, however, to make oven fried potatoes. She came up with this recipe from Wililams-Sonoma web site.

It looks a bit "over-crisped" but it was quite good.

Ingredients:
4 small/medium Yukon Gold potato, skinned and thinly sliced (2 -3 mm thick).
1 stick (4oz) butter, melted (we used non-salted)
1/2 tsp dried Thyme (we did not have fresh thyme 1 tbs, chopped)
1 tbs Kosher salt

Directions:
Preheat oven 374F (we used convection toaster oven).
Bush melted butter on the bottom of the baking pan, arrange the sliced potato and pour the remaining melted butter.

Sprinkle with thyme and salt.

Bake it for 1 hour and let it stand for 10 minutes before serving.

It appears that our toaster oven has a bit uneven temperature and a portion of the dish got a bit over crisped but this was a good, easy potato dish to make. Our steak was cooked to perfect medium rare.

Since this was a rare occasion to have steak, we opened 2011 Joseph Phelps Insignia. This is a very elegant and complex red wine. We enjoyed a simple steak dinner with crispy baked potato with thyme and sautéed green beans with this wonderful California red. We equate this wine to the good left bank Bordeaux without any funkiness. We continue to be impressed with this wine.

Tater tots, sort of テイタートッツ

We don't eat steak very often but when we do, my wife always likes to have potatoes as the side. (Apparently, she is an all American meat-and-potato gal when it comes to steak). She usually makes oven fried (baked) potatoes. She tried several iterations using duck fat or bacon drippings in the past. Since I got two small filet mignon for dinner, she wanted potatoes but wanted to make something different. She came up with this variation of the ultimate American potato; "Tater tots". They are essentially grated potato formed into short cylinders and deep fried. Generally this dish starts life frozen in a package on the freezer isle of the grocery store (Ore-Ida invented this in 1953). Then it is baked in the oven. (When my wife was a very young child, she thought the freezer was the source of all food including a continuous supply of pre-made tater tots).  Being a bit older now, there was no way my wife was going to send me to the grocery store to get frozen tater tots. They were going to be home-made...was that even possible? Turns out tater tots are very popular and there are many recipes to make them at home from scratch. My wife consulted several of these recipes and came up with this variation. It is more like small hash-browns than tater tots.

Instead of deep frying, this was baked.

Ingredients:
White potatoes, 5, peeled
Bacon, 2 strips, cooked crisp and crumbled
1/2 tsp onion powder
1 Tbs. AP flour
1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese
1 1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp pepper
2 Tbs. olive oil
Italian parsley, finely chopped, 1 tbs

Directions:
Partially cook the potatoes in salted water (starting from cold water, add 5 minutes after the water comes to a boil). (Next time we may try just grating the potato raw).

Grate the partially cooked potatoes coarsely using a box grader. Then mix in the bacon, onion power, AP flour, cheddar cheese, salt, pepper, olive oil and parsley. (#1).

Instead of making the potato mixture into short cylindrical shapes which is traditional, my wife just made a loose ball using a medium size ice cream scoop on a greased non-stick baking sheet. She then lightly pressed them flat  (#2 and 3).
She baked them in a 450F for 20 minutes turning over once after 10 minutes (#4).

This was good with a crunchy outer shell and soft center. We did not taste much of the bacon, though. For the amount of work, we may be better off with our oven baked potato or I may even suggest we go for those Ore-Ida frozen original tater tots.

Chicken beer stew 鶏のもも肉のビールシチュー

This is my wife's valiant effort to "save the day" while I was at work. I bought some chicken thighs the previous weekend but I ran out of time and could not cook them. I was afraid they would go bad but my wife came to the rescue. She had a day off during the subsequent week and she had this dish steaming hot ready to eat when I got home. What a pleasant surprise! She looked up chicken thigh recipes on the internet and found one using beer and bacon. She figured this could not go wrong and made this chicken beer stew.

It is a complete meal on its own but we served it over rice and topped with crumbled bacon. My contribution was to add florets of rapini and to make a semi-dark roux to finish the dish (this portion is not in the original recipe). My wife also made a number of alterations to the original recipe.

Ingredients:
4 slices of thick cut bacon
2 onions sliced
4 chicken thighs
1 (12-ounce) bottle beer (preferably brown ale)
3  potatoes peeled and cut into bite sized pieces
2 tablespoons whole-grain mustard
4 sprigs fresh thyme
3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

Directions:
Cook the bacon until browned in a pan over medium high heat.
Remove with a slotted spoon and transfer to a paper-towel-lined plate.
Add the sliced onions and cook until translucent in the bacon drippings.
Add the chicken thighs and cover with the beer, making sure it is fully submerged. add the mustard, and potatoes.
Simmer until the chicken is cooked through and fork tender. Serve with the crumbled bacon as garnish

This was quite good. Although we were not sure the beer did much of anything. (My wife, not being a beer connoisseur, thought she had a very dark beer but it was actually a pale ale--she used Samuel Adams pale ale).  Probably a stronger dark beer would have had more impact. The original recipe called for skinless thighs which dredged in flour and then browned. Instead, I finished with medium dark roux (flour 2 tbs cooked in 2 tbs of melted butter until light brown and added liquid from the stew to make the roux and then put int back into the stew and mixed). This was a very good comfort food. My wife can make this dish for me again anytime.

Japanese yam simmered with grated apple リンゴとサツマイモのみぞれ煮

I saw this recipe for Japanese yam and grated apple. This is one of a series of vegan cooking or shoujin ryouri 精進料理 by a Buddhist monk in Kyoto which appeared in Japanese news paper on line.  Since we got Japanese yams and it is a very simple dish, I decided to make it. It is called "Mizore-ni" みぞれ煮 or "simmered in sleet". Usually "sleet" is grated daikon but in this dish, it is grated apple.

The grated apple looks like sleet accumulating on the surface.

This is very simple to make.

Ingredients:
1 Japanese sweet yam, satsuma-imo, cut into 1/3 inch half round.
1 apple, peeled, cored and grated (I used a fuji apple).
1 tsp sugar
water to cover the yam.
a pinch of salt.

Directions:
Melt the butter and sautee the yam until coated
Add the grated apple, sugar and salt
Add water to cover and cook until the yam is done (10 minutes)



This is a simple but nice dish. The mild sweetness of the potato and the apple went well together. In addition to sweetness the apple added a light acidity that made the dish taste refreshing. The butter flavor also went well with this. The red skin adds to the color but the consistency of the skin and the flesh of the yam are so different it is probably better to remove the skin next time.

Spicy Japanese sweet potato and burdock root さつまいもとごぼうの甘辛炒め

Since there were extra Japanese yams left over after we made yaki-imo 焼き芋, I decided to make something different with them. There is a classic candied Japanese yam called "Daigaku-imo" 大学芋 which is deep fried yam coated with a layer of candy (or melted sugar). I decided that is not something I would like to cook or eat. So, instead, I decided to make this dish which I saw the recipe on line, especially since I also had half a burdock root left over. I substantially changed the way this was cooked. I thought it would be difficult to cook the vegetable through just sautéing it as suggested in the on-line recipe.

I garnished it with white sesame. The spicy and sweet sauce clings to the surface.

Ingredients:
One Japanese "satsuma-imo" Japanese yam (#1), washed skin left on, cut into irregular bite sized pieces.
Half a gobo burdock root, skin scraped off and cut into bite sized pieces (cut on the bias as I turned it 45 degrees. This method is called "Ran-giri" 乱切り.
Garlic and ginger, skin removed and finely chopped, the amount is to your liking.
Potato starch for dredging the vegetables.
Oil for deep frying.

For the sauce:
1 tbs Sriracha (or more if you like spicy)
1 tbs soy sauce
1 tsp rice vinegar
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp sake

Directions:
1. Soak the gobo in water with a splash of vinegar for 20-30 minutes, drain and wash.
2. Cook the gobo in water for 20 minutes. Drain and pat dry.
3. Soak the yam in water for 20-30 minutes and pad dry.
4. Dredge the gobo and yam in potato starch and deep fry for 5-8 minutes until the yam is cooked (#3),
5. Add 2 tbs of water to the pan and then add the sauce mixture.
6. Keep tossing the vegetables until, a thick sauce develops and coats the vegetables (#4).

The original recipe said to sauté all the vegetables dredged in potato starch. Gobo is rather hard, however, so I didn't think it would get cooked through if I just sauteed it, so I decided to precook it in water. In addition, instead of sautéing the vegetables in a small amount of oil, I deep fried them. I did not think just sautéing would work well especially if the vegetables are coated in potato starch, I also thought the yam would not cook easily that way. By deep frying, the potato starch made a nice crust (We enjoyed snacking on the deep dried yam which was very good as is.)  I added the sauce mixture and the crust added to the nice clinging sauce.

When we tasted it immediately after it was cooked and still hot (temperature wise), it was spicy but once cooled down it became much milder. This dish has a very good texture contrast between the yam and gobo. The salty, sweet and spicy combination of flavors really worked well. Although we had this as a drinking snack, this is perfect starch side dish.

Japanese yam (Yaki imo) 焼き芋

While we were in the near-by gourmet grocery store, my wife spotted "Japanese yam" from California. It is called satsuma-imo 薩摩芋 in Japan. The name "Satsuma" came from the old local jurisdiction which is now a part of Kagoshima prefecture 鹿児島県 where this type of yam was widely grown.  Satsuma-imo, which supposedly originated from South America, is not endogenous to Japan and is said to have come to Southern Japan in 17th century from the Philippines via China. Compared to the more popular yam we usually get, Satsuma-imo has a redder skin and white/yellow flesh.

Satsuma-imo is associated with a fond nostalgic memory for my wife. Many years ago, we went to Sapporo 札幌 in the winter. It was very cold as most winters are in Sapporo and there was deep snow on the ground. We were visiting one of my colleagues, who was considerably older than we were. We were all sitting around the gas space heater which was the characteristic source of heat in Hokkaido houses at that time when my colleague's wife hopped up and said she had the perfect snack for us. She produced two large Satsuma-imo and wrapped them in aluminium foil. Then she popped them into a contraption on the heating stove (although details how she cooked the potato are foggy). She explained that this (yaki-imo 焼き芋 or grilled yam) was a favorite snack for young girls of her generation. According to her, they cooked them in the coals of the heat stove and ate them after school on cold days. We sat together in companionable conversation while they cooked and the air became filled with the sweet smell of potato. After some time she fished them out of the heat and opened the foil. She broke open the red skins. The white/yellow flesh was soft and exuded sweet smelling clouds of steam. We all fell on them; devouring the hot pieces we broke off with our fingers laughing as we popped them in our mouths puffing out breath to keep them from scalding our tongues. She was 100 percent correct they were the perfect snack for that day, weather and company. That was the first time my wife ever tasted yaki-imo so now whenever my wife sees or tastes a yaki-imo, she remembers that experience with nostalgia.

Since we never really compared how Japanese and regular yam taste, we cooked them identically and had a "yam tasting". Both yams were wrapped in aluminium foil and placed in our Weber grill  next to the chicken we were cooking using indirect heat. The temperature was kept around 360F (I monitor both the grill temperature and the food temperature). In about the last 20 minutes, it went up to 380F. In the picture below (the second picture), the one on the left (red skin) is the Japanese yam and the one on the right is the regular yam both after cooking.

As you can see the Japanese yam has yellow flesh and the regular yam has red/orange flesh.

Upon tasting, the Japanese yam has a nice slightly firmer texture (or "hokkori" ほっこり in Japanese parlance) and it is sweeter than the regular yam. Both my wife and I ate at least half of the Japanese yam before she had time to make mashed yam with butter and soy sauce as a side for our chicken dinner.

The regular yam is a bit softer and wetter and not as sweet as compared to the Japanese yam.

My memory of  Yaki-imo is that, on cold winter days in Sapporo, we often saw a man (usually fairly old) drawing a cart down the street selling grilled yams. In the cart, the yams were cooked over charcoal in a large earthen pot lined with small round stones. Thus, this type of yaki-imo  is called  "Ishiyaki-imo" 石焼き芋 or "ishi" means "stone"  i.e. "stone grilled" yam.  I remember the vendor simply calling "Ishiyaaaaaa-ki imooooo" as he pulled his cart along. In addition, I do remember the cart also had a steam powered whistle which made a continuous shrill whistling noise.  Apparently, now ishiyaki-imo is being sold on the street in a similar manner but, the hand-drawn cart has been replaced by a truck. Jon has posted a video of this. Ishiyaki-imo is, of course, cherished in Japan by women of all ages.  I found a comprehensive comparative study using different cooking techniques by a group of young women. I also found that special Yaki-imo aluminum foil is being sold in Japan, which absorbs heat efficiently shortening cooking time and enhancing the  flavors of yaki-imo.