“Shoga-yaki” ginger pork bowl “tei-shoku” lunch 豚の生姜焼き丼定食

A few weeks ago, my wife suggested that it has been quite a while since we had sukiyaki すき焼き and it would be nice to have some. I agreed, but when I went to the Japanese grocery store, I forgot to get the frozen "Sukiyaki meat" すき焼肉. So, the next time I went I was proud of myself for not forgetting the meat. But apparently I picked up the wrong thing. My first clue was when my wife said, “I didn’t know sukiyaki is made with pork, I thought it was beef.” Instead of sukiyaki beef, in my haste I had picked up thinly sliced pork for "shouga-yaki" 生姜焼き. Since this package was next to the "shabu-shabu" シャブシャブ beef, I assumed it was also beef but for sukiyaki. In my enthusiasm I bought not one but two packages of the stuff. All was not lost, however, as I may have mentioned before, in Hokkaido 北海道, where I am originally from, many families use pork instead of beef for sukiyaki as was the case in my family. So, we went ahead and used one of the packs of pork to make sukiyaki. It was not good. The pork was too lean and too thickly cut. It got hard when cooked as sukiyaki. (So note to self: next time when at the Japanese grocery store get appropriate sukiyaki beef). Meanwhile, since I had bought two packages of this pork, I had one package left and it was clear that it would not be used for sukiyaki. So, one weekend I decided to use the pork as originally intended and made “shoga-yaki” ginger pork. Pork shoga-yaki 豚の生姜焼き is a very popular dish in Japan. When I was a college student, coffee shops near the university served lunch in addition to tea and coffee. In addition to  “Western-style” lunches such as sandwiches or spaghetti, most of the coffee shops also served Japanese-style  bento 弁当 or teishoku 定食* and shoga-yaki was among the popular ones. I am sure this has not been changed even now.

*Digression alert: I am sure it is no need to explain “bento” but here it goes anyway. When “bento” is served in restaurant/coffee shop, it is usually a lidded rectangular box which contains the entire meal but unlike pre-packaged bento, the rice and dishes are warm or just made. "Teishuku" (please follow the link for illustrated guide) is the Japanese concept of a "complete" meal or "meal set" which includes a bowl of  rice, soup, tsukemono 漬け物 (pickled or more likely salted vegetables), main dish (protein) and small "kobachi" 小鉢 side dish or bowl. In many "Taishu-shokudo" 大衆食堂 or "public" eateries which serve those who want drinks with food and those who want a complete meal, many different teishoku are available (the main protein dish varies and can be grilled fish, sashimi, or meat etc) but the remaining items, or “sides” such as soup, tuskemono, are usually the same for each available teishoku. The main and side dishes can be had as a single dish without other items (this is great especially if you are just drinking). It could also be "teishoku" for the price of a few more yen. 

So, this is  my rendition of "shoga-yaki" donburi teishoku 生姜焼き丼定食. In this case, the main protein and rice were combined as a donburi.

The main dish shown in the next picture is a bed of rice to which I added pork shouga-yaki with onion, seasoned shiitake mushroom (this was from dried shiitake and seasoned in "ama-kara" 甘辛 or sweet and salty with mirin and soy sauce) and blanched broccoli.

Miso soup is wakame ワカメ sea weed, "abura-age" 油揚げ fried tofu, silken tofu 絹ごし豆腐 and chopped scallion ネギ.

The "Kobachi" side dish was simmered root vegetable including "renkon" lotus root, "gobo" burdock root, "takenoko" bamboo shoot, shiitake mushroom, and "konnyaku" devil's tongue and blanched sugar snap in salt broth.

The tsukemono is cucumber, daikon, nappa cabbage, jalapeño pepper, and ginger (I salted this a bit stronger than I usually do; with salt 3% of the weight of the veggies instead of usual 2% and also added a dash of Vodka which makes it last much longer without changing the taste. (With this preparation it can easily last for at least one week in the refrigerator).

How to make pork shouga-yaki ginger pork (Although I posted "shouga-yaki" over 11 years ago, this time,  I am using a more appropriate, albeit not perfect, cut of meat). I am sure that there are so many variations and preferences and, of course, you could use other meat such as beef but this is what I made.

The essence of this dish is thinly sliced meat sautéed and seasoned sweet soy sauce flavored with ginger. Using lean meat can make tough shouga-yaki and using fatty cuts such as thinly sliced pork belly will prevent that but the traditional cut to be used is "pork roast" meat 豚のロース cut thinly (thin enough but not paper thin).

Ingredients:
Thinly sliced pork, 4-5 slices for one meal size serving (in Japan, specially packaged "shouga-yaki" pork is available widely. The one I got here is a bit too lean, the perfect cut has more fat. I used the entire package which is about 20 slices).

2-3 tsp neutral oil

Onion slices, optional

For marinade:
Mirin, soy sauce, and sake (1:1:1) ratio, enough to marinate the meat plus more to add while cooking.
Grated ginger (amount arbitrary, totally depends on your taste, I used whole grated ginger but you can use just the juice from grated ginger).
Dash of dark sesame oil
(optionally, grated onion).

Directions:
Marinate the meat. The amount of the marinade is enough to cover all meat slices and a bit more (additional 1/4 cup). I marinaded for 1 hour in the refrigerator.
I drained the marinade (the excess marinade reserved) and spread the meat slices on a paper towel to remove excess marinade.
In the non-stick frying pan, add 2 tsp neutral oil on medium flame. 

Add onion slices and cook until soft and somewhat transparent, set aside

Cook the meat slices, spread out without over lapping, in batches. One side 30 seconds and the other side 15 seconds. Do not overcook (the meat will finish cooking when cooked with the marinade later).
Set aside the cooked meat slices.
When all the slices are cooked, add the marinade to the pan (if not enough add more sake, mirin and soy sauce).
Add back the cooked meat with the accumulated juice and the onion .
Quickly cook and coat each slice with the marinade. Take it out and set aside.
Since I was planning to make a doumburi, I added a small amount of water at the end and heated the marinade to make sauce.

Assembly:
Top the rice with the shouga-yaki pork slices (I used 3 slices per bowl).
Pour in the sauce from the frying pan (just slightly moisten and season the rice).
Add any other garnish or topping (such as ginger julienne in vinegar or "benishouga" 紅生姜). I added seasoned shiitake mushrooms and blanched broccoli.

Compared to the sukiyaki we made with this pork, the shouga-yaki came out much better. The meat was tender and well seasoned. Perfect lunch for the weekend.

Matsutake from Maine メイン州からの松茸

We have been getting fresh Matsutake from the Oregon mushroom for many years and I have made all the dishes I can think of. This year when I looked on their web site matsutake was listed “out of stock”. So I decided to look into alternatives sources. I found fresh matsutake available from Maine at a site called  “Foraged”. It appears this is the web hub for individual foragers. I ordered some matsutake from the site and ours came from a forager in Bangor, ME. One of the forager’s ad even states “Picked to order”. I did not know Maine has matsutake (I know Oregon and Colorado produced North American Matsutake). Oregon mushroom has different grades for matustake and I have been getting “grade #1” which has unopened caps. “The Foraged” did not have different grades.  As shown in the picture below what arrived were large with opened caps (These are after I cleaned). 

Because of the open caps and gills, it is a bit more difficult to clean and also had more “worm holes” than the ones from the Oregon mushroom.

I had posted all matsutake dishes I can think of as I mentioned earlier. I prepared the classic dishes from the Maine matsutake such as “Matsutake rice” and “Grilled matustake on a toban yaki grill”.

This Maine matutake had good flavor and we had a "Matsutake feast" one evening which included  "Matsutake toban-grill” 松茸の陶板焼き, "chawan-mushi" 松茸の茶碗蒸し, "Dobinmushi-like soup" 松茸の土瓶蒸しもどき and ended with "Matsutake rice" 松茸ご飯 . 

The below are the first group of matsutake dishes. Since I could not get a Japanese citrus called “Sudachi” スダチ, which is typically used with matsutake dishes, I used wedges of lime which is closest among the readily available citrus.

I cooked touban-yaki on the stove with the lid on so the matsutake grilled and steamed at the same time keeping the aroma in. I happended to get shell-on ginko nuts or “ginnan” 銀杏 from Tako Grill, which I prepared a few days before, I coated the nuts with salt and grilled them with the matsutake. 

This chawan-mushi is mostly matsutake and a few ginko nuts and shelled edamame, and small chunks of shrimp. I also added chopped chives since I had it.

I also served edamame.

Then, I served the matsutake soup somewhat like a traditional “dobin-mishi” but since I do not have proper "dobin" 土瓶 I made dobin-mushi -like soup in a mini-donabe.

For the broth, I made #1 broth or "ichiban dashi" using kelp and bonito flakes. I also added steamed renkon ball, shrimp, daikon, carrot, shelled edamame and ginko nuts.

The matsutake-rice was prepared the night before. So I just microwave but it came back really nicely. So we think this feast did justice to the celebration of autumnal dishes ushering in the new season. 

The 4th of July Pacific saury barbecue さんまの塩焼き、焼きおにぎり

 This year, instead of celebrating the 4th of July (Independence day) by firing up the Weber grill, we decided to fire up our ”Hibachi*" or "charcoal konro" 炭火コンロ. And, instead of grilling chicken, we decided to grill some pacific sauries or "sanma" さんま which had been hanging out in the freezer for some time. (My wife refers to these as "torpedo fish"). In the past, “sanma” which is a very bony fish was not considered “prime” eating and was very cheap. But in recent years, they are getting scarce and much more expensive.  According to the label on the package this group of three came from "Taiwan". Traditionally, fresh sanma is cooked with the innards intact but I cleaned these fish after thawing. I had posted and pontificated about sanma previously.  I salted them before grilling and served them with grated Daikon 大根おろし. We even found an appropriate long oval dish serving dish which appropriately accommodated this long heads-on fish as shown in the next picture.

*Digression alert: A Japanese style small charcoal-fired grill is called "hibachi" in the U.S. (or may be elsewhere also). But in Japan "hibachi" 火鉢 is not used for cooking but as a source of heat used in winter for warmth in traditional Japanese rooms. (Not in Hokkaido because it is too cold and an hibachi is not an adequate source of heat). The grills used for cooking are traditionally called "shichirin" 七輪. The modern name would be "charcoal or sumibi-konro".  In the old days, if grilling fish at home,  you would do this outside using a "shichirin" and charcoal fire. More recently, however, most of Japanese cook tops have a built-in fish grill which prevents smoking while grilling fish making "shichirin" obsolete. But, in my opinion, charcoal grilled fish is still the best!

Since the fish is oily, it makes a quite a good amount of smoke but cooks rather quickly.

Whenever we fire up the Japanese charcoal grill, my wife asks me to make grilled rice balls. I usually make a simple rice ball without any filling but this time she specifically asked for stuffing- mayo and mustard dressed salmon. So, I obliged. Since grilled rice ball takes much longer to cook than the fish, I started grilling the rice balls first while we enjoyed several small appetizers and cold sake. I posted how to make perfect grilled rice balls before. As far as we are concerned the best way to cook a rice ball is over a charcoal fire. Such perfection is displayed in the next picture. The high heat sears the outer layer into a toasty brown crust enhanced by the taste of the soy sauce mixture brushed on while it is cooking. The inside is soft and moist. The addition of the salmon stuffing further infuses a mayo/mustard/salmon/salty flavor. 

Once the rice balls were finished, I set them on edge over a cooler part of the grill to keep them warm while I grilled the fish. Our holiday meal is shown in all its splendor in the next picture.

Sanma are extremely boney fish and my wife is not as good at spitting out fish bones as I am. (This was demonstrated early in our marriage when I had to remove a fish bone from the back of my wife’s throat using a long nose plier.) But she is much better at deboning a fish with a knife than I am. So although “bone-out” is not quite the traditional way of serving "sanma", in the interest of safety, that is how we served it.  Seeing the pile of lovely fish meat next to the pile of recently removed bones somehow reminded me of the "Meguro-no sanma" story 目黒のサンマ which, again, I pontificated on before. In any case, this was very enjoyable holiday celebration; grilled sanma with grated daikon and soy sauce followed by grilled stuffed rice balls (we each finished one. My wife thinks the remaining rice balls will nicely heat up in our toaster oven. We will see).

Tai-meshi 鯛めし

When I bought Hokkaido rice “Yumepirika” 北海道米ゆめぴりか from the  New York Rice factory, I found that they offer other items which add to the enjoyment of  rice such as “frikake” ふりかけor “umeboshi” 梅干し. One such item was a kit for making “red snapper rice” or “tai-meshi” 鯛めし. I bought the kit since this reminded me of a trip we took to Matsuyama, Shikoku 四国松山 in 2017. On that trip, we ate  “Tai-meshi” (Japanese seasoned rice cooked with pieces of red snapper). The fish is caught in the “Setonaikai” in-land sea 瀬戸内海 area and “Tai-meshi” is famous for the area.

Digression alert: Below is a picture of the restaurant called “Tai-ya” 鯛や in Matsuyama where we ate the tai-meshi. It was a converted old Japanese residential house. They only serve “tai-meshi” and only for lunch. You need to make a reservation ahead of time. I do not remember but there may have been two time slots you could choose from. For most customers, the lunch is served on a low individual Japanese table in a tatami room. We just could not sit properly on tatami to eat lunch; it was far too uncomfortable.  They were kind enough to provide us with an upstairs room with chairs and Western style table. 

Here is “Tai-meshi” that we ate. It was served in a wooden rice container called “Ohitsu” お櫃. I am sure this was cooked in a traditional Japanese rice cooking iron pot called “hagama” 羽釜. It included the bottom charred part called “Okoge” おこげ. 

The first time we bought rice from the rice factory, “Yumepirika”  was not available. As compared to “Nanatsuboshi”, this one is much softer. We like “Yumepirika” better as a straight rice but for sushi, we like “Nanatsuboshi”. We also got “Mochi-rice” 餅米 called “Hokkaido Hakuchomochi” 北海道白鳥餅. This is a type of rice from which “mochi” cake is made. I like to mix this type of rice with the regular type in seasoned rice since it gives a better chewy texture.

There appear to be a few variations of  the tai-meshi dish. It turns out that the kit I bought from New York Rice Factory was a variation close to what we had at the tai-meshi restaurant in Japan. It was very similar to what we remembered from the restaurant and was pretty good. I garnished it with “Kizami-nori” 刻みのり but I should have used “mitsubishi” ミツバ. 

This kit came in a fairly large paper bag (#1 below). It contained a good amount of cooked and marinated skin-on vacuum packed red snapper chunks, seasoning sauce, a piece of kelp, bonito flakes, and a mylar pouch containing what appeared to be freeze dried deep fried tofu and shredded carrot. Following the instructions to use 2 cups of rice  (I used one cup each of “Yumepirika” and “Hakucho-mochi” rice), I rinsed the rice and added water to the level indicated in the rice cooker for two cups. I then mixed in the tai fish with its marinade, and freeze dried items and placed the kelp on the top (#2). 

Once the rice finished cooking the freeze dried items coated the surface of the rice (#3). After removing the kelp. I mixed the items coating the surface into the rice (#4).  We were quite impressed with the results. The large chunks of marinated fish were very good, the seasoning was authentically close to the dish we had in Japan. The inclusion of separate kelp and bonito flakes really added to the complexity of the flavor. The New York Rice Factory also has a kit for “Tako-meshi” タコ飯 or “octopus rice”, again famous in the In-land sea area. We may try that next when we have a chance. In any case, making and tasting “Tai-meshi” bought us back to this memory. We will have to be satisfied with such memories until we can get past this covid thing and travel again.

Pork curry with almond sauce アーモンドソースポークカレー

 We like to roast pork in our Weber but because of Covid, the cuts we usually use for roasting are not always available and we have had to make do with whatever we can get. Case-in-point, we recently got a bone-in shoulder pork roast. This cut was very large. In addition, it contained a portion of the scapula bone which I removed requiring some further “at home” butchery to get the various sizes and portions that we wanted. In this case I removed the bone and divided the roast into three segments. The first segment was the meat around where the bone was removed. I cut it into small chunks for stew or curry. The remaining two segments consisted of a smaller portion of roast which I used for “ni-buta” 煮豚 or simmered pork and a larger portion of roast which I barbecued in our Weber. 

I commissioned my wife to come up with a dish using the small chunks and suggested a curry. This time, my wife wanted to make a new curry she had not tried before. She chose one from Madhur Jaffrey’s cookbook “Indian Cooking. In addition to using quite a few spices (#1 & #2 below), it also includes pulverized almonds which is something we have not used before. The resulting curry is shown in the picture below. It was a lunch one day. I served the curry over rice with tomato (Skinned Campari tomato), blanched sugar snaps and broccoli which I warmed up in the curry while the curry was being heated.

I also served Japanese pickles which traditionally accompany Japanese curry. The red on the left is “Fukushin-zuke” 福神漬け (people from Hokkaido call it “Fukushin-zuke”a but the rest of Japan will call in “Fukujin-zuke” (a mixture of daikon, lotus root, egg plant and cucumber, soy sauce flavored) and the white objects on the right are “rakkyo” らっきょう (pickled small onions).

Ingredients:
2 garlic cloves
1 inch sized ginger cube coarsely chopped
5 Tbs. slivered almonds, roasted
3/4 to 1 cup of chicken stock
2 lbs. of pork shoulder cubes
1/2 tsp. cardamom
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. cloves

2 medium onions finely chopped

1 tsp. ground coriander

2 tsp. ground cumin
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
1 1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. garam masala

Directions:

Put the garlic, ginger, almonds and 6 Tbs. chicken stock in a blender (we used an immersion blender) and blend until you have a paste (#3).

Add several tablespoons of peanut oil into wide frying pan. Add the cardamom, cinnamon and cloves and cook until they “bloom” becoming fragrant. Put in the onions and cook until lightly browned (#4). Put in the almond paste as well as the coriander, cumin and cayenne pepper (#5). Stir until it browns slightly. Add the meat the salt as well the chicken stock (#6). Cover and cook on simmer for several hours until the meat gets tender. Add the garam masala before serving.

Just a Note: The meat did not get tender in the sauce even after several hours so I removed it and put it in a sauce pan covering it with chicken stock. I simmered it that way for about an hour. It got nicely tender and made additional sauce in the chicken stock. I added the meat back and sauce into the curry and it was much better.

This was very good. We've never had anything like this before. It had plenty of depth of flavor but was not too (spicy) hot. The almonds gave it a creamy texture and added a note of nuttiness that was very nice.  The additional veggies I put in as it was being heated up added some bright notes of freshness as well as additional flavors. It made a great lunch.

Two premium types of Japanese rice from "The rice factory" 北海道ななつぼしと富山県コシヒカリ

When COVID pandemic started, we tried to buy a bag of rice at our Japanese grocery store and realized all  15 Lb. bags of the rice we usually use were sold out. The only rice left was a 5 pound bag of very expensive imported Japanese "Koshihikari" コシヒカリ rice from Niigata 新潟県. Since we did not have any choice, we bought it. But when we cooked the rice, we realized it was much better rice than our usual California Koshihikari rice "Kagayaki" かがやき which is grown on dry field (so called "Okabo" 陸稲) rather than paddy. Later  15 Lb. bags of Kagayaki rice were again available but we decided to finish up the expensive rice first. After we finished it, I was curious about what other kinds of Japanese rice may be available. So I started looking on the internet and came across a store in New York called "The rice factory". This store imports unpolished rice from Japan and as the orders come in they polish the rice to the customer's specifications (brown, 50%, 75% and white rice). Since the 2020 new crop rice is about to come in (according to the site, they start selling new-crop in January 2021), many of the varieties they advertise were out of stock. I ended up getting "Hokkaido Nanatsu-boshi" 北海道ななつぼし(meaning 7 stars) (Hokkaido for obvious reasons, also see addendum below) and "Toyama Koshihikari" 富山県コシヒカリ.

This site also includes rice charts akin to the sake charts at Tippsy sake. I wanted "Hokkaido Yume Pirika" which was out of stock. "Nanatsuboshi" according to this chart is in the bit "tough" or "firm" category and not as sticky as other rice. "Kosjihikari" on the other hand is more sticky and soft.

So, we decided to do some rice tasting. I wheeled out our "Kamado-san" かまどさん earthen ware rice cooker and cooked the "nanatsuboshi" first.

It is quite shiny and the rice kernels were separate; not sticking together too much. The texture is exactly a the chart indicated. We did not dislike it but we prefer rice that is a bit softer. We did discover however, that when we re-heated this rice (microwave), it came out much better than our usual California rice. We also found it made excellent risotto. We used it to make Shiitake mushroom risotto from the leftover cooked rice and it was really good. Since the rice kernels kept their consistency, it added a good (not quite al-dente) texture.

Few days later, we tried the "koshihikari". 

We enjoyed Koshihikari with salmon belly , salt broth soaked sugar snap, skinned and sliced Campari tomato with Yuzu mayonnaise and cucumber and wakame dressed is sumiso as a shime one evening. It was softer and stickier than the previous Hokkaido rice; definitely better but less than our expectation. 

I think, when the new crop becomes available we should try "Yume Pirika" ("Yume" means "dream" in Japanese and "pirika" is "beautiful" in Ainu, the original native language of  Hokkaido.

Addendum: One more interesting fact about Hokkaido rice is that when I was growing up, because of the harsh cold, Hokkaido was not the optimum place to grow rice. As a result the rice that was produced was very low quality. But, in recent years, because of the new cultivars and, maybe, because of global warming, Hokkaido rice is now being hailed as one of the best in Japan such as "Yume Pirika". At least one small benefit from global warming ?

Harvest “Juugo-ya” moon gazing 10-1-2020 十五夜月見団子

This year "Harvest moon" was October 1 which is also Japanese "Juugoya" or 15th nights* for moon gazing. Unfortunately the evening of October 1 was raining and we could not see the moon but the next night, it was clear with some haze in the sky and we took these pictures.

*something to do with 15th night of the month in Luna calendar.

Since October 1 was a Thursday and a week day I  couldn’t make tuskimi-dango 月見団子 that day,  so I made them the weekend before. (Using the exact same recipe as last year). I also made the same mitarashi みたらしsauce. 

Here are 15 spherical "dango" piled up in a 9-4-2 configuration.

Since I made this a week ago and even though they were kept in a sealable container in the refrigerator, they dried up and got hard.

Using a microwave safe silicon container, I added the sauce and “dango” and microwaved it for 30 seconds or so. It became as soft as when I made it and the sauce also got warmed up.

We enjoyed this as an ending “shime” dish or dessert, whichever applies. The dango had a very pleasing soft creaminess and the sauce added some additional sweet saltiness. Very nice. 

Karikari-koume rice balls カリカリ小梅のおにぎり

I made small crunchy salted green plums or "karikari-koume" カリカリ小梅 with the fruit we retrieved from the fruit ladened branch of the plum tree that broke in a recent thunderstorm. The recipe I followed stated, it takes several weeks' rest in the refrigerator before the salted plums can be enjoyed. Indeed, it did taste bitter when I tasted it few days after I moved the plums to a jar and placed them in the refrigerator. After a few weeks in the fridge, however, I tasted it again and the bitter aftertaste was gone. In the episode of "Midnight diner" 深夜食堂 featuring "karikari-koume", the last dish the master served was the salted plum rice balls. So, inspired by that episode, I made karikari-koume rice balls.

First, cut off the plum meat from the stone using a knife (below).

Add it to warm cooked rice.

Sprinkle roasted white sesame on top and mix well.

Make a small triangular rice ball and attach a small rectangle of the seasoned "nori" seaweed as seen below for taste as well as to provide the place you can hold the rice ball with your hand.

We had this with refrigerator-dried grilled salmon. The salted plum gave both salty and plummy flavors and a nice crunchy texture. We really liked these rice balls.

Kitsune Udon and Inari-sushi 狐うどんといなり寿司

When our refrigerator went kaput, some of the Japanese frozen items thawed almost completely. One of them was "Abura-age" 油揚げ or deep fried tofu pouches. These were rectanglar-shaped full sized ones called "Ganko-oyaji-no-abura-age" がんこおやじの油揚げ (meaning "stubborn old man's abura-age*"). I decided the best way to save them was to cook them in soy sauce and sugar or/or mirin which is called "Ama-Kara" 甘辛 meaning "sweet and salty". Once cooked, they would last longer and also could also be used to make "Inari-sushi" 稲荷寿司 (right below)  and "Kitsune udon" 狐うどん (left below) which I did a week or so later and served as a lunch one weekend. I served Inari-sushi (or more accurately, Inari-zushi) with cucumber "asazuke" 浅漬け and sweet vinegar-dressed ginger (store-bought).

*This is a Japanese way of saying that this product was made with a stubborn determination of an old man who upholds a tradition of making the best product without any compromises.

Classically, Kitsune Udon is simply topped with seasoned abura-age and chopped scallion (this is a famous dish in Osaka 大阪 and they typically used the green part of the scallion as opposed to Tokyoites who uses only the white part. Since I made home pasteurized eggs in that morning, I added a poached egg as well. That makes this as "Kitsune Tsukimi udon" キツネ月見うどん. "Tsukimi" 月見 means "moon gazing" and the egg yolk is equated with the moon.

Cooking and seasoning Abrura-age:
2 rectangular abura-age, thawed, intentionally (or otherwise), if frozen, cut in half (square).
Place the abura-age in a colander and pour boiling water over it to remove any excess oil (this process is called "abura-nuki" 油抜き).
Place four squares in a single layer in a pan and add the seasoning (Japanese broth 100ml, mirin 20ml, and 20ml, add sugar if you like it sweet).
Place a "otoshi-buta" on top and simmer for 15-20 minutes until only a small amount of seasoning liquid remains on the bottom. Then let it cool.

I did this some days prior to using them and kept them in a sealed container in the "back-up/emergency" fridge.

Making "Kitsune udon"
Soup: Heat Japanese broth made from a dashi pouch (kelp and bonito), seasoned with sake, mirin and light colored soy sauce. I seasoned  it lightly and added the seasoned abura-age pouch to warm. The seasoning from the pouches leak out into the soup and when I tasted it the soup was just right.

Udon noodle:
I had cooked dried thin udon noodle. I warmed them up in boiling water for 30 seconds, drained and put it into bowls.

I poured in the warm soup, topped it with the seasoned abura-age, poached egg and thinly sliced scallion.

Assembling Inari-zushi (four square pouches):

Filling the pouches with cooked rice: the simplest would be sushi rice, which is what I basically used,  but the rice can be mixed with other ingredients such as seasoned gourd peel or "kanpyo" カンピョウ and shiitake mushsooms 椎茸. The variations are endless. I used frozen white rice (this happened to be rather expensive Japanese grown "Koshihikari" コシヒカリ rice). I microwaved it to warm it up and dressed it with sushi vinegar. I did not mention it earlier but among the thawing victims of the refrigerator's demise were two small packages of small whitebait fish called "shirasu" しらす. (At the same time I rescued the abura-age I braised these fish in mirin, sake and  soy sauce until almost dry and placed them in a small sealed container in the "emergency" fridge.) I mixed this seasoned "shirasu" into the sushi rice mixture. I prepared the pouches to be filled with the rice by pressing the abura-age pouches between two identical plates to remove any excess liquid. I then stuffed them with the rice mixture. Since the seasoning of the pouches and "shirasu" were essentially similar, this combination worked very well.

I cut the stuffed pouches in half to serve. Here you can see small fishy mixed into the rice.

For impromptu lunch with "Inari" theme**, this was quite good.

** Digression alert!:
"Inari" 稲荷 is a Japanese deity (or one of many Japanese gods) who promotes industrial and agricultural prosperity. There are some 30,000 Inari shrines that exist throughout Japan. These Inari shrines are guarded by statues of foxes (wearing red bibs for some reason). Although the fox is often confused to be the God, it is not. It is simply the Inari god's messenger. In addition, these foxes are said to be very fond of "abura-age". So, any dish made with abura-age is called "Inari" or "Kitsune (fox)".

This picture was taken by my wife when we were traveling in Kyoto 京都 and visiting  "Fushimi Inari Taisha" 伏見稲荷大社 in 2015. This is famous for numerous red torii gates 赤鳥居. This is the main or "parent" Inari shrine among the many in Japan.

When we visited there, it was very crowded. Later, we learned that visiting there at night may be less crowded.

Hybrid Katsu-don "fried pork" bowl 煮カツ丼ソースカツ丼ハイブリッド

When we get pork tenderloins, we most often make, at least a main portion of it, to "ton-katsu" トンカツ or "hire-katsu" ヒレカツ. We then make "Katsudon" カツ丼 from the leftover tonkatsu. I have made some variations of it depending on what ingredients are available but there are two main variations. The most common one is onion and tonkatsu simmered in soy sauce-based broth then topped with a lightly beaten egg (most people like the egg to be semi cooked) and then placed on the top of cooked white rice. The other is sometimes called "so-su katsudon" ソースカツ丼 . In this variation "tonkatsu sauce" or some other Japanese-Western style sauce such a mixture of catsup and Worcester  sauce is used. The tonkatsu is either simmered or dipped in the sauce or is topped with it. I made a hybrid of the traditional and the so-su katsudon then topped it off with a poached egg made from pasteurized eggs. This was a lunch. I served it with salted cucumber and daikon or "asazuke" 浅漬け.

Since I did not have any shiitake mushrooms which I usually use for this dish I used frozen "maitake" 舞茸 or hen of the woods. I also had blanched broccolini florets so I added that mostly for color.

Ingredients: (for two servings).
Cooked rice (freshly cooked is the best but microwaved frozen rice will do).
2 hire-katsu or pork tenderloin cutlets (if you fry them just before assembling the dish, that will be the best but that never happens in our household).
1 medium onion, halved and thinly sliced
Some mushrooms, I often use fresh shiitake but this time I used frozen maitake, amount arbitrary.
1/4 cup Japanese broth (made of kelp and dried bonito flakes)
1 - 2 tsp concentrated "mentsuyu" めんつゆ noodle sauce or mirin and soy sauce
2 pasteurized eggs
Some greenery such as snow peas, I added blanched broccolini (optional)

Directions:
1. In a small frying pan, I added olive oil and sautéed the onion and maitake (still frozen) until slightly soft (optional step, you can skip this and go to #2)
2. Add the broth and mentsuyu, when it starts boiling, turn the heat down and simmer with a cover on for 5-minutes or until the onion and mushroom are cooked and the sauce is slightly reduced.
3. Meanwhile, Put the rice in two bowls and microwave to warm it up.
3. Since this is leftover tonkatsu, I reheated it in our toaster oven using the toasting function, which is almost like re-frying. The crispy crust comes back. Cut into bite-size strips.
4. Start making poached eggs 4-5 minutes before everything comes together. The yolks should still be very runny.
5. Using a perforated spoon, place the cooked onion and mushroom on the rice (only small amount of sauce remains in the pan. I reserve this in a small serving bowl just in case my wife needs more sauce)
6. Place the sliced and reheated tonkatsu, broccolini and poached egg on the top.
7. I topped everything off with some tonkatsu sauce.

We like this hybrid katsudon. Since I poached the eggs, it is much easier to consistently get a runny yolk and cooked egg white compared to the traditional method of topping with lightly beaten eggs which often results in overcooked yolk and undercooked white. Because I do not cook the tonkatsu in the liquid, the crust remains crispy.

Vermont "Aigamo" rice バーモント産合鴨米

Our friend who moved to Vermont some years ago, gave us a special organic Japanese short-grain rice which was raised using the "Aigamo" method. "Aigamo" 合鴨 is a type of domestic duck (cross between white domesticated duck and wild mallard). These ducks are released as hatchlings in the rice paddy to eat weeds, snails and churn the water to prevent other weeds from taking root thus organically tending the rice. These ducks are depicted on the package shown below. This rice came from Boundbrook farm and their site described in more detail how the "Aigamo" method works. I was familiar with this method of organic farming in Japan but never ate rice grown this way before.

According to the website, they sell both brown and white rice. We got brown rice.

Our rice induction cooker has a "Brown" rice setting since brown rice needs more water. I first washed the rice and then added it to the cooker with the appropriate water level. I added a pinch of salt, and soaked it for about 6 hours before cooking.

I let it steep for 30 minutes after it finished cooking. It had the nice smell of freshly cooked rice plus a nutty smell of brown rice.

We enjoyed the rice plain at first to enjoy its full flavor. It has a very nice nutty flavor. My wife really likes to add butter an soy sauce to hot rice. So this time even I succumbed to her method. We also had it with a seasoned nori sheets. Since this was the ending dish or "shime" for the meal, we did not have anything else with the rice.

Because of the "aigamo" organic method, the price of this rice is substantially higher than regular rice but if you consider "organic food" is important plus the wonderful nutty flavor, this is worth the expense.