Chawan-mushi with “ikura” salmon roe 冷製茶碗蒸しイクラのせ

 This is not a new dish but it was the second appetizer for the evening when we had the tuna caprese as the first dish. This is a cold chawan-mushi which I made in the morning.  I topped it with “ikura” salmon roe and garnished with “ao-nori” 青海苔 a type of dried green seaweed called laver.

For this version of  chawan-mushi , I used shrimp, chicken and scallion since I did not have the other items I usually use.

Ingredients: (for 6 small cups such as the sized container shown above)
3 large eggs (150-170 ml)
Broth, three times volume of the eggs (450- 520ml). Any broth including chicken broth will do. I used a mixture of bonito and kelp broth from a dashi-pack and broth I made from shrimp shells. I seasoned the broth with mirin, light colored soy sauce and salt.

6 large frozen shrimp, shell on, thawed, salted, let it stand for 5-10 minutes, shelled and cut into bite sized pieces.
1 cooked chicken tenderloin, shredded.
1/2 scallion, sliced on bias.

Directions
In 6 small bowls, add the shrimp, chicken, and scallion. Mix the eggs and seasoned cold broth, pour the egg mixture through a fine sieve. Steam (I used an electric wok) on high stream for 10 minutes and then lowered the steam and keep steaming until the egg mixture was set (another 10-15 minutes or more).

Instead of eating this hot, I let it cool to room temperature and refrigerated it. I served it cold with Ikura and dried “ao-nori” on top.

Since I did not have other items such as shiitake mushrooms, I used whatever was available. This simpler approach worked very well for this cold chawan-mushi. The addition of the ikura salmon worked very well. It provided a nice texture with a delicate pop in the mouth followed by a  burst of fresh sea saltiness. After this we had another tuna dish.

Shrimp and avocado salad 海老とアボカドのサラダ

One of our favorite "salads" is tuna sashimi cubes and avocado but for a change I decided to substitute cooked shrimp for the tuna sashimi. We decided to dub this our version of shrimp cocktail.

For color I added Campari tomato (skined) on the bed of babay arugula.

This could have been an easy dish to make since we had a bag of frozen shrimp in the freezer, but complications arose. The frozen raw shrimp we had was a bit old. I prepared it but it had some off taste (iodine flavor common in cheap take out shrimp dishes). While I may have thought the taste wasn't that bad and considered using the shrimp they did not pass my wife's taste test so "that was that". I had to get some new shrimp for this dish. In our grocery store, I found shell-on but deveined red shrimp from Argentina (#1, below). This is the same kind of shrimp we used to have as sashimi at Tako grill.

Ingredients (4 appetizer servings):
6 large shrimp (frozen) shell on (#2), thawed by running water.
Avocado, half, skinned, stone removed and cubed
lemon juice from half a lemon

For dressing
Wasabi (as much as you like, mayo tames the spiciness down) and light colored soys sauce (1tbs) (#6)
1 tbs mayonnaise
Fresh dill, chopped (optional)

Directions:
Boil salted water with a splash of sake added. Turn off the flame and add thawed shrimp with shells on, place lid on and let them steep for 15 minutes.
Drain and peel shells and cool to room temperature (#3)
Cut into a bite sized pieces (#4)
Add avocado and lemon juice and mix (#5).
Make dressing by mixing mayo, soys sauce and wasabi (#6). Taste and adjust the ingredients.
Dress the avocado and shrimp mixture.

This was really good. Although I may prefer the tuna cubes and avocado slightly more, the combination of wasabi, soy sauce and mayo is a good one. The new shrimp was certainly better than the old frozen ones. They were sweet and succulent and I am glad I did not use the old one.

Shrimp and cucumber salad with "Kimisu" egg yolk vinegar sauce 黄身酢の和え物

When I made shrimp balls (which required egg whites), I was left with two egg yolks. I was pondering how to use them. The yolks were from regular not from pasteurized eggs, so making mayonnaise was not feasible. Hollandaise sauce was another possibility but I settled for Japanese "Kimisu" 黄身酢 sauce. I have posted "kimisu" previously. That one came out a bit thinner than I wanted. This time, my kimisu sauce came out very thick and creamy. I made a small starter salad with shrimp, cucumber, wakame sea weed 若芽 and Campari tomato.

Since I had, tobiko roe とびこ I used it as a garnish on the top.

As you can see the kimisu sauce did not just run down the sides and had almost a soft mayo texture.

I used salt-preserved (not dried) wakame which tasted better.

Chef Kitayama of Sushi Taro told me that he froze the eggs he used for his sauce and then removed the egg yolks for kimisu to make a thick creamy texture. It was too late for that and, rather than winging it, I looked up recipes to accomplish thick and creamy kimisu sauce.  Among the many variations of recipes I settled on this recipe by a professional Japanese cooking teacher. He suggested to use a whisk and double boiler and whisk in air to make it creamy. In addition, the seasoning was slightly different from what I was doing. The original recipe used 3 egg yolks but I had only two. I had to make proportional changes in other ingredients to accomodate. I also reduced the sugar (my instinct told me otherwise it would be too sweet).

Ingredients (enough to dress 6 of these small salads):

Egg yolks, two

Rice vinegar 2/3 tbs

Mirin 2/3 tbs

Sugar 1 tsp

Light colored soy sauce  2/3 tbs

Dashi broth 1 1/3 tbs

Salt to taste

Directions:

In the upper pan of a double boiler, I combined all the ingredients. When the water in the lower pan started boiling, I turned it down to simmer and put the upper pan over the boiling water and started whisking vigorously.  I occasionally removed the upper-pan to prevent the sauce from becoming scrambled eggs. After it started thickening, I kept it on the heat and kept whisking for two more minutes. I cut off the heat and kept whisking for another minute or two and let it cool down. After it cooled, I put the sauce in a small seal-able container and kept it in the refrigerator until I was ready to use it  (According to this recipe, it will keep 2-3 days refrigerated).

Shrimp: I thawed frozen shrimp, then cooked it by gently boiling it in salted water with a dash of sake for 2-3 minutes. I sliced the shrimp in two lengthwise and cut the resulting strips in half.

Cucumber: I used one American mini-cumber washed and salted, rolled on the cutting board and let stand for 10 minutes, then washed and dried using a paper towel and sliced thinly. I salted it and kneaded it and let it stand for another 10 minutes. I squeezed out the excess moisture and dressed the cucumber in sushi vinegar. I squeezed out the excess dressing before assembly.

Wakame seaweed: I used the "raw" salt preserved kind. I washed off the salt and soaked in filtered water for a few minutes. I squeezed out the excess moisture and dressed it in sushi vinegar.  Excess dressing squeezed out before assembly.

This was certainly a nice thick and creamy kimisu sauce. When I took it out of the refrigerator, the sauce was stiffer than I wanted it too be, so I added a small amount of broth and mixed it in to loosen it. In retrospect, I should have added more vinegar to loosen the sauce. I could have used a more assertive vinegar flavor in this sauce. In any case, using a whisk and introducing air made this kimuzu sauce very thick and creamy. The entire small salad tasted great.

Shrimp balls, two colors エビ団子の二色あげ

It was getting to be a corn season (it was July when I made this dish). Fresh local corn in husk was reasonably priced and plentiful in the grocery store.  Last week, I got 10 ears of corn. My wife made fresh corn pudding (amazingly, 10 ears only made 5 small ramekins of pudding, so each ramekin had 2 ears worth of corn in it, but it was the pure concentrated essence of corn). This week I bought 5 ears. I did not know what I would make, so I just boiled them in salted water briefly and removed the kernels (by cutting them off using a chef's knife) (see #1 in the composite picture below). I found this recipe on line and decide to try it. It is essentially ground/chopped shrimp made into a ball covered with chopped corn kernels and soybean (called two tone shrimp balls since one is green and the other yellow). The oil I used may have been a bit too hot since the balls browned quickly. I served them with two kinds of salt; green tea salt and ukari ゆかり(dried powdered red perilla with salt).

This was much more difficult to make than I had thought especially forming the shrimp paste into balls. This may be due to the imprecision of the amount of egg white and potato starch I used.

Ingredients: (the amounts are from the original recipe which reportedly makes 8 small dumplings)

Shrimp, shell off, 120g (I used about 8 medium count frozen shrimp, thawed in running water. I salted them and let them stand for 10-15 minutes before using) 

Egg white：10g、potato starch：1/2 tsp (this was how the amount of specified in the original recipe. I ended up using egg white from one egg and much more potato starch.)

Corn kernel 60g (I just used a part of what is shown in #1)

Soybeans, boiled, shelled 60g (I used frozen soybeans and used only part of what is shown in #2)

Egg white, potato starch, salt

Directions: (I modified the recipe as usual, especially as I had no idea what 10 grams of egg white was. I probably added too much egg white which then forced me add more potato starch).

1. I chopped up both the corn kernels and soybeans. I squeezed out any excess moisture using a paper towel.

2. I finely chopped the shrimp until it stuck together with a paste-like consistency. I added the egg white (about 1 egg worth). After adding the egg white, the shrimp paste became very soft. I added about 2-3 tsp of potato starch and a pinch of salt. 

3. Wetting my fingers, I made small balls (total of 8), dredged them in potato starch, then coated with egg white. I then covered the surface with either the corn or soybeans. It was still rather soft and difficult to make into a ball.

4. I dropped the balls into a 350F oil (#3), which immediately started browning (#4). The oil may have been too hot.

5. I fried them turning several times for 3-4 minutes.

This was a nice dish. It essentially had the nice firm texture of shrimp. The corn variation was the better of the two--the sweetness of the corn perfectly complemented the sweetness of the shrimp. We are not sure about the soybean version. The soybeans did not add much flavor to the dish.  We tried both types of balls with two kinds of salt, green tea and red perilla flavors, both were good. We also tried with soy sauce but the soy sauce overwhelmed the subtle shrimp flavor of the dish. If I make this one again, I may simple mix the corn and/or soybeans into shrimp paste and fry it.

Spot prawn from Catalina カリフォルニア ボタン海老

We have not gotten anything from Catalina offshore products for a long time but it is California spot prawn season and we got these prawns along with frozen big eye tuna 中トロメバチマグロ and ankimo あん肝. Spot prawn is more like "botan-ebi" ボタンえび than "ama-ebi' 甘エビ and tends to be larger. The closest to Japanese ama-ebi is pink shrimp from Alaska and New England. We did get Alaskan pink shrimp a few times for sashimi from a Japanese-run company in Alaska, it came head removed and the freshness was not great. We see pink shrimp from Maine in our grocery store when it is in season but we never see it fresh enough to serve as sashimi. Even boiled, pink shrimp is quite good. In any case, we are not very fond of eating large spot prawn as sashimi. In the past we made ceviche out of it. I chose the smallest 6 and served it as sashimi for the evening we received them. I also served cucumber cups with tobiko トビコ and moromi-miso もろみ味噌.

For this occasion I thawed real wasabi. I also served octopus. This was quite good and we enjoyed it with cold sake.

I served the larger shrimp as tempura. Although these were not the largest ones the head was sill too tough and we had to remove the outer shell before eating. The prawn itself was very good. I served it with perilla tempura with green tea salt.

The next evening, I made a fry from the largest prawns. After the head and shell were removed, I de-veined (actually removed the intestine) from a tiny slit in the back with a tooth pick (actually not much to remove).  I made multiple shallow cuts on the belly side (ventral surface) to prevent it from curling up. As per usual, I  dredged in flower, dipped in egg water and  breaded in panko crumbs. I also deep fried the head. 

The prawn was very succulent and much better than "frozen and thawed" shrimp. I made an instant tartar sauce with store-bought mayo, finely chopped butter pickles with an addition of the pickling liquid.

Although I fried the head long time starting with low temperature and finished with regular 350F, the outer shell was still too hard. We removed it and only ate the center. The larger prawn is much better cooked than raw. We really enjoyed it. I also made broth from the remaining heads and shells which I am going to make some kind of soup.

Pork and shrimp teriyaki burger エビ入り豚肉照り焼きバーガー

This was just a leftover-control dish but it tasted good. When I made "Fried bamboo shoot stuffed with pork and shrimp",  I prepared much more stuffing than I could use. Using this stuffing, I made this "burger" as a drinking snack.

I served this with green beans (which were already blanched, I just warmed them up in the same pan in which I made these burgers). I also served bomboo shoot "Tosa-ni" 筍の土佐煮. These made nice starting dishes for the evening.

Ingredients: (For two small burgers)

Ground pork, 40g (I hand chopped pork butt).

Shrimp, 60g (I used frozen, thawed and chopped finely until it had a paste like consistency)

Scallion, one, white part, finely chopped.

Ginger root, finely chopped (to taste)

Salt, to taste

Soy sauce, 1/2 tsp

Sake, 1/2 tsp

White pepper, to taste

Directions:

I mixed together the above ingredients and formed the mixture into two identical patties. I cooked the burger in a small non-stick frying pan with light olive oil. I cooked about 2 minute or until browned and then turned over and cooked another one minute or until that side was nicely browned. I then added soy sauce (1 tbs) and mirin (1 tbs) and kept the pan moving and turning the burgers a few times. When the sauce evaporated enough to form a viscous sauce, I cut the flame. After I placed the burgers on the plates, I poured the sauce over them. I sprinkled on some "Sansho" 山椒 powder.

Because of the addition of shrimp, the consistency of the burger was quite different from a just meat burger. It had a more elastic texture (In Japanese, it is called "puripuri" プリプリ). The shrimp also added a slight sweetness. My instant teriyaki sauce went well. Sansho also added its unique flavor. This was a well-balanced first dish of the evening.

Shrimp-stuffed squid エビ詰めいか

I saw cleaned squid in our regular grocery store and bought it (this is my weakness, I like squid). It was a bit marginal with a fishy smell and needed to be prepared quickly. I pondered what to make and decided to stuff the squid tubes with shrimp. This idea came from shrimp gyouza 餃子 and shumai 焼売 dumplings. I have posted stuffed squid dishes before (ones stuffed with chicken meat, rice and crab meat). I could have sauteed the stuffed squid but decided to simmer it in broth. I served this on a bed of water cress.

I served this once cold and it kept its shape fairly well even when sliced. When I served it warm it was a bit more difficult to slice and the stuffing was a bit softer but it tasted better warm. The water cress had a nice fresh bitter taste which was refreshing.

Ingredients:

Tubes of squid, small, cleaned, 6

Shrimp, about ten large, frozen (or fresh if you have it) (#1)

Sweet onion, small, finely chopped (#1)

Ginger root, grated, 1/2 tsp

Potato starch, 1-2 tbs

For simmering broth: (#4)

Chicken broth, enough to cover the squid (I used my usual Swanson no fat reduced salt).

Bay leaves, 3

Ginger, 3 thin slices

Black pepper corns, whole, 4-5

Light colored soy sauce, about 1 tbs (to taste)

Direction:

1. I thawed the frozen shrimp in running water. I salted it rather severely and let it stand for 5-10 minutes. I washed and dried the shrimp (#1).

2. I cut half of the shrimp into small chunks and chopped the other half finely until it became a sticky paste (#2). This "paste" serves to bind the chunks of shrimp. I could have added ground chicken as a binder instead.

3  I mixed the shrimp, onion, ginger, potato starch.

4. Using a small spoon, I stuffed the tubes of squid and closed the end with a toothpick (#5). Take care to not over stuff them; the stuffing will expand while cooking and they may explode if you do. (#5).

5. I mixed the broth, ginger slices, pepper corns, and bay leaves. I laced the stuffed squid in the broth and gently simmered with the lid on for 30 - 40 minutes (#4).

This can be served immediately, reheated in the broth or served even cold.

This has an intense shrimp flavor which is more than the squid flavor. Because of the gentle long simmering, the squid was very tender. I could  have used Japanese dashi broth but I got a bit lazy after spending some time stuffing the squid and found an already opened box of Swanson chicken broth in the refrigerator and used it for this dish. The Japanese/Western hybrid simmering liquid worked well. This dish is quite neutral in flavor and will go with any drinks including wine.

Ebi Yaki "Æbiskiever" エビ焼 "エビスキーバー"

As we suggested in the previous post of "Takoyaki" たこ焼き, we made "Ebiyaki" エビ焼き. Since we made this in our Æbelskiever cooker, I name this "Æbiskiever" エビスキーバー.  We had this for lunch one weekend.

From the outside, they look the same as takoyaki. This time I used bonito flakes as garnish with aonori 青海苔 and my takoyaki sauce たこ焼きソース.



Once you cut into it, however, instead of octopus, you’ll find shrimp.



I used shell-on raw frozen shrimp, thawed under running cold water, shelled, cut into chunks, and salted (below).



After some discussion with my wife,  I decided to omit "Tenkasu" 天かすsince our store-bought variety does not add any flavor (this must be related to the kind of tenkatsu you use) and once cooked in the batter, no texture remained in the takoyaki.  So, I used chopped scallion and the shrimp but nothing else in our Æbiskiever.

I prepared the batter as before but I used powdered skim milk as the original recipe suggested. I let it rest over night in the refrigerator. For the first batch this time, I did not do as well as my first try. After my wife took over for the second batch, we learned that you have to be extremely patient (which I knew and I was when I made takoyake, but in general is not my forte) until the crust is fully formed before trying to turn them over. The sauce was made as before; a mixture of Lee and Perrin worcestershire sauce, ketchup and honey. I made the sauce slightly sweeter than before.

I am sure a traditionalist "Takoyaki" connoisseur will cringe at our innovation but we really liked this Ebiyaki "Æbiskiever". Watch out, more variations to come!