Sea Urchin and watercress in butter ウニクレソン

We had a variation of this dish at Yuzuki in San Francisco and also learned that the original dish was supposedly invented by a small “Teppanyaki” 鉄板焼き place in Hiroshima 広島  called “Naka-chan” 中ちゃん. I decided to try this dish since I got  “Premium” uni from Catalina for the weekend: they did not have “Gold” uni (it is getting nearly impossible to get gold uni).  The “premium” uni could be OK but this batch was very soft and disintegrating when we received it. The first day, I selected the most well-shaped ones for sashimi which tasted OK but the remaining uni did not fare that well. I thought about  making pasta with uni sauce.  I then remembered this dish and decided to make it. Initially, I was going to make the one similar to we had at Yuzuki but, after looking at the original dish, which is served with baguette and I happened to have baked baguette in the morning, I made this dish as it is served at Naka-chan (we have never gone there or had the dish in this variation but I based this dish on the description and pictures).



As you can see, we initially served only two thin slices (toasted) baguette rounds so that we would not fill up on this opening dish of the evening.



But we needed more baguette to mop up the wonderful sauce.



Since there is no "recipe", I just “winged it”. In the picture, the original dish appears to use whole water cress with thick stalks attached but I removed thick stalks (the amount is arbitrary, I could have used more watercress). I added about 1tbs of unsalted butter in a frying pan on medium heat. When butter bubbled and started browning, I added the watercress and sautéed until it wilted. Then I added a whole tray of premium uni (120grams) (Picture above). I added about 1 tsp of soy sauce and a squeeze of lemon juice and cut the fire.

This was sublime! It tasted wonderful on top of toasted baguette. We actually had to go get some more baguette because we were not going to leave a single drop of the wonderful sauce behind. The only alteration I would make is to cut up the watercress—the whole watercress became rather stringy. Next time, I may use the thicker stalks but I will chop up the water cress into much smaller pieces. We had this with cold sake but it may also go well with sparkling wine or a crisp acidic white.

Savory Japanese egg custard with eggs, eggs, and more eggs ウズラの卵，ウニ，イクラ、カマスの卵のせ茶碗蒸し

Finally my right hand is out of the cast. While the recovery is slow, the strength is coming back and I started cooking again. (my wife was more than happy to turn over the set of cooking knives and all that they entail). To celebrate the fact that I can once again hold a knife and cut sashimi, I ordered blue fine tuna, yellow tail (hamachi) sashimi, and uni from Catalina. In addition, we had some left over caviar from Fine Caviar. We decided to indulge and make a few dishes that would go well with sake. The first one was a Japanese savory (not sweet) egg custard (Chawanmushi 茶碗蒸し) which contained boiled quail eggs and was topped with salmon eggs and golden pike eggs (caviar) and uni.



The chawanmush was served at room temperature (so as not to “cook” the caviar) and garnished with chopped chive and my usual "real" wasabi.



I made the chawanmushi in the same way as before. I mixed 3 eggs (about 150ml) and 450ml of kelp dashi broth seasoned with light-colored soy sauce or usukuchi shoyu 薄口醤油, salt, and mirin みりん. I poured this through a fine-meshed strainer into individual small bowls. Since I was planning to top it with uni and salmon roe, I did not put in any meat or shrimp but just Ginko nuts (銀杏), (from a can), chopped scallion, and fresh shiitake mushroom (sliced) and boiled quail eggs (ウズラの卵, cut in half, from a can) as seen below.



The amount of egg mixture made 6 small containers (actually soba dipping cups). I steamed them rather slowly using an electric wok for 30 minutes until the custard was set. I removed them from the steamer covered them loosely with a paper towel, and let them cool to room temperature. Except for the two we planned to eat in a few hours, I covered the rest with plastic wrap and move them to the refrigerator for future enjoyment.



This is just a variation on the theme of chawanmushi. The uni was not one of the best (Catalina only had "Premium" but "Gold" is the best). Although the flavor of the uni was good, the consistency was much softer and it had slightly slimy texture. Nonetheless the dish was adequately decadent. It was very good. We mixed up all the eggs and the egg custard and enjoyed the symphony of eggs.

Sea Urchin pasta with poached egg 雲丹のパスタ温泉卵のせ

When we got sashimi from Catalina, only "premium" uni was available. After three days, one tray was left. Since the premium uni was a bit soft to begin with and the edges were disintegrating a bit (tasted OK, though), I decided to make another version of Uni pasta. I suggested to my wife, Carbonara style or a poached egg on the top. She chose the latter.

There is nothing different from what I posted before except for placing a poached egg on the top. As before, I used angel hair pasta. I added olive oil (or butter) in the frying pan (1 tbs) and added the cooked pasta and cream (3-4 tbs) and heated it up. When the cream was slightly reduced and coated the pasta, I put the uni in the pan (leaving a few aside for garnish) and mixed them with the pasta using a silicon spatula. Then I cut the flame. I tasted it and seasoned it with a bit of salt and pepper and also mixed in finely chopped parsley (Perilla or chives would also have been fine but I did not have them).

Porched eggs were made in our usual way with the yolk still runny (using pasteurized shell eggs). I garnished with thin strips of nori.

The combination of cream, uni, and egg yolk made this dish ultra rich and creamy. Although I was a bit disappointed with the quality of the sashimi items we received from Catalina this time, this was a quite piece de resistance to finish up the uni.

Sea urchin pasta パスタのうにクリームソース

This was a dish I've been wanting to make for some time but it felt like a bit of a sacrilege to use  good uni this way, so I did not make it until now. Catalina Offshore products sells four different kinds of uni; two kinds of live uni in a shell, California "premium" uni and "gold" uni with the gold uni being the best. I usually get the gold uni but this time, the only uni available was "premium". The difference between the "gold" and "premium" is the color and texture; the gold uni has a nice golden color with a firm texture and the premium is yellower with a softer consistency. Both taste pretty similar to us but there is about a 100% difference in price. They also sell frozen "vana" uni which appears suitable to use for a sauce but we have not tried this.

In any case, because the premium uni has a softer consistency, I thought this was best for this pasta dish. Since this is still an excellent uni, I made sure not to cook the uni in order to preserve its fresh oceanic flavor.

Uni: I used the entire 80 gram tray for two small portions of pasta (We were going decadent here). Leaving a few pieces for garnish, I put the rest in a metal bowl and stirred to break it up and added cream (about 2 tbs) and mixed them well but did not use a bender. Because of this, it still had some small bits and was not totally homogenized but that was OK by me.

Pasta: I used Angel-hair pasta which was cooked as per instruction on the box.

While the pasta was draining, I melted butter (1 tbs) in a frying pan on medium flame. When the butter melted I added the drained pasta to coat. After I cut the fire, I added the mixture of uni and cream and coated the pasta.

I garnished it with chopped chives and nori strips and more uni on the top. I served soy sauce on the side. This is a very rich and creamy pasta. Excellent! Next time, I may mix in soy sauce before serving. Although this is a pasta dish, we stuck to cold sake which went so well with the uni.

Julienne of Nagaimo with sea urchin 千切り長芋と雲丹

I just realized that my fellow Izakaya affectionado, Tobias at Izakaya Sanpo, has one recent post on October 2011 which I missed. It is about the Izakaya in Setagaya ward 世田谷区 called "Akaoni' 赤鬼, which is an imaginary red demon in Japanese folklore. One of the dishes he had and posted included this dish. Since I happened to have all the ingredients, I decided to make it.

I should have arranged everything more neatly but this is an Izakaya dish after all and I suppose rustic or not perfectly neat presentation is OK. The description of this dish and picture were enough to assemble this simple dish.

I just sliced and cut nagaimo 長芋 into small match sticks. I dressed with a small amount of sushi vinegar (from the bottle) and placed in the middle of the dish. I placed California gold uni with a small dab of real wasabi. On the three corners, I paced nori strips.

Before eating, we poured a small amount of soy sauce and mixed. This is certainly a good small dish. A perfect Izakaya affair which goes well with cold sake even with Daiginjou 大吟醸.

Tuna belly loin block and tuna fat dressed in sumiso マグロの脂の酢みそ和え

The below picture is an example of a small sashimi dish prepared using a tuna block from Catalina Offshore products. I already mentioned that they did not have blue fine tuna top loin for sometime and belly loin for a longer period. Finally, just in time for New Year, we could get belly loin. Nothing new here but just toro and aburi 炙り or seared toro. Only new item is small cubes of pure tuna fat dressed in sumiso 酢味噌 (in the center back in a small plate).

Before showing where this pure fat came from, here is how the 1 lb of blue fin tuna belly loin looks (#1). This cut has much more chiai or dark red portion as compared top loin. I divided the block into ootoro 大トロ (fattiest), chuutoro 中トロ (meidum fatty), akami 赤身 (red) and chiai 血合い (dark red) (#2 clock wise from the left back). The removed skin (#3) had a thin layer of pure fat. I removed the fat layer with a thin-bladed knife. I pondered what to do with it and came up with this dish; I cut up the fat into small cubes and dressed the pieces with sumiso dressing and chopped scallion.

Fattiest part (#4) often has thin layers of fat separating the meat. I used a kitchen torch and seared them (#5). We also got California gold uni which comes in a wooden pallet as seen here (#6).

You could make your own version of soy sauce for sashimi by adding sake and bonio flakes and heating it up (then strain and cool to room temperature), I just buy a small bottle of commercial "Sashimi Shoyu" 刺身醤油 (left). Since I could not get a fresh wasabi diakon 山葵大根 in time, I thawed real wasabi (right) in a tube, which has its own problem but is the next best.

The pure tuna fat dressed in sumiso was very good. The fat was rather firm but had a nice unctuous mouth feel and vinegar and miso cut its fattiness. Having only a small amount also helped to appreciate this dish better. As an added benefit, compared to pure fat from bone marrow, pork (lardo), or horse ("Koune" こうね), fish fat is supposedly good for you.

New Year's Eve: Champagne and Chawanmushi with sea urchin and salmon roe 大晦日夜 シャンパンと雲丹とイクラのせ茶碗蒸し

This was the last day of 2011. According to the old Japanese system for counting a person's age called "Kazoe-doshi" 数え年, everybody turned one year older on New year's day and New Year's Eve was referred to as "Otoshitori" お年取り meaning to be a year older. Although eating soba noodles or "toshikoshi soba" 年越しそば on New Year's Eve appears to be popular, this was not the custom in our household when I was growing up. I think eating soba noodles is more a custom for trades people who simply did not have enough time to make an elaborate dinner on New year's eve. My mother used to give us a feast for New Year's Eve akin to Christmas dinner.

In any case, New Year's Eve has very important (added personal) significance to us. We opened a bottle of Champaign. To go with the bottle of vintaged Champaign, my opening salvo was a chawanmushi 茶碗蒸し or Japanese savory egg custard topped with California gold uni and salmon roe (ikura).

My chawanmushi recipe is the same as before; three parts seasoned dashi broth and one part whole egg. To accommodate the special toppings, I did not use all the ingredients I usually use such as shiitake mushroom and shrimp. Instead I used only ginko nuts (from a can), shimeji mushroom, small pieces of chicken and sliced (on a slant) scallion. As ususal, from 3 eggs (about 150ml) plus seasoned dashi broth (450ml), I made 6 small containers (a small cup for dipping soba noodle) as you see below.

I let it sit after steaming was completed for 10 minutes so that the chawanmushi was not too hot and topped it with the uni and ikura. This was the ultimate--perhaps only surpassable with the addition of foie gras but I have not tried that yet!. This dish went so well with this Champagne. Although we are not champagne connoisseurs by a long shot, this particular one had a pleasant yeastiness with a fruity finish that went very well with the richness of the dish.

This was followed by a small sashimi (tuna and uni) and pickled herring in cream sauce (the white stuff in the picture above). The pickled herring was a nod to my wife's tradition of eating herring on New Year's eve. She claims this came from growing up in Pennsylvania Dutch country. She admitted, however, that the herring was too harsh a flavor compared to the subtlety of the sashimi.

As a small grilled fish dish, I served fatty belly of salmon (harasu ハラス), simply salted and cooked in a frying pan accompanied by namasu daikon (daikon in sweet vinegar) garnished with ikura. After a few more dishes including a small hand roll of salmon skin as a shime dish, only thing we had to do was stay awake until midnight to see in the new year.

Sea urchin, creamy scrambled egg on toast 雲丹とクリーミィ炒り卵のせトースト

Uni for breakfast--this may be too much of a good thing. I have to preface this by saying it was all my wife's idea. I, for one, would not have considered eating uni for breakfast. However, we were in a bind. I had ordered 4 trays of luscious golden California uni from Catalina (along with some other items) expecting to feast on them over the Friday to Sunday dinners of the weekend when my wife reminded me that one of those days we had a dinner engagement. So there we were; too much uni and not enough intervening dinners before it went bad--hence breakfast uni. We have tried the combination of soft scrambled eggs and uni before and it was really good so this was just another step along the continuum

Scrambled eggs: I made creamy scrambled eggs using a Bain Marie or a double boiler to make it extra creamy. I used pasteurized eggs (two) with the addition of cream (light cream 2 tbs), salt (1/4 tsp) and freshly cracked white pepper. After beating the eggs well, I added a thin pat of butter in the upper pan of a double boiler. When butter melted, I added the egg mixture and stirred with a silicon spatula. I kept stirring until the eggs became soft scrambled eggs (4-5 minutes). I erred on the side of slightly under cooking (this is a reason I used pasteurized eggs).

Toast: My wife had baked a loaf of white bread previously which was sliced and frozen. She toasted and then buttered it.

Assembly: I layered the creamy scramble eggs, chopped chives and then sea urchin (for two servings, I used a whole tray, 80 grams). I garnished it with strips of nori (I added more after taking picture) and a side of real wasabi. I sprinkled Kosher salt and white pepper and more chopped chives as well.

We served this with a very small bowl of kabocha and sweet potato potage (I used sweet potato instead of my usual regular potato) on the side. We smeared a little of the wasabi on the uni before eating. This is rich! You can't go wrong with this combination no matter what time of the day it is eaten. It was amazingly good as a breakfast. We had Cappuccino with this but if this had been in the evening, sake wold have been our choice of libation.

New year's day sashimi, marinaded salmon and salmon skin roll 元旦の刺身, ロシア漬けと手巻きサーモンスキンロール

This is a repeat of last year but we were again lucky enough to receive the shipment of sashimi from Catalina offshore products on December 31. This time we got fresh farm raised "Toro", which had "akami" 赤身, chutoro 中トロ and Ootoro 大トロ on it. In addition, we got anikimo, uni, and salmon roe. Ootoro was quite good. In the picture, the left back is "namasu" なます大根 topped with salmon roe. This year, I added yuzu juice in addition to rice vinegar which added a nice flavor. The golden uni was also excellent as usual (right back).

I also served marinated salmon which is my mother's recipe (right front). This salmon dish is called "Russian marinated salmon" ロシア漬け and my mother does not know how the dish got the name or where she got the recipe*. Of course, I made my contribution (read modification) to the recipe since I think the pith of the lemon imparts a bitter taste to the dish.  Essentially, I slice fresh salmon (the original recipe uses salt preserved salmon "aramaki shake" 新巻鮭) fillet paper thin, layered with sliced onion, lemon zest (grated by a micrograter), lemon slices (without the rind and pith). As I lay on the new salmon layer I salt it. The marinade is a mixture of sake, vegetable oil and rice vinegar (1:1:3) but I reduced the amount of oil. I tightly pack the salmon in a sealable container and let it marinade for a few days. The picture below is this dish served stand alone on the next day.

When I made the salmon dish described above, I removed the skin with a bit of the meat attached. Using the skin, I made salmon skin rolls as a "shime" dish.  This is a very popular hand roll item in the U.S. but I do not know if any sushi bars in Japan serve this. We like it very much. It is very simple to make, I cooked the salmon skin seasoned with salt, in a frying pan instead of a toaster oven (which is how most sushi bars in the U.S. cook the salmon skin). The skin should be nicely crunchy. I cut the cooked crispy skin into long strips. I used a half sheet of nori crisped up by passing over the gas flame. I smeared real wasabi, added sushi rice, perilla leaf, julienned cucumber and several strips of the salmon skin and made it into a cone shaped hand roll as seen below.

This is a very nice end to your new year's day Izakaya feast.

* I googled (google.co.jp) "鮭のロシア漬け" the marinated salmon recipe and found this blog (in Japanese). The recipe is a very similar to my mother's.  According to this blogger, her mother got the recipe from a Japanese magazine "Kurashi no techo" 暮らしの手帖. The recipe is reportedly published in the section called "Apron memo" quite a number of years ago, although the exact year is unclear. Even though the blogger mentioned the recipe was published some time ago, I was eating this as a kid and it is possible my mother's recipe predates even that publication.

Tuna "chutoro" carpaccio with Uni 中トロのカルパッチョの雲丹添え

This is a variation of tuna carpaccio but this is a deluxe version with uni and chutoro 中トロ. I think I made this the second day after we received the goodies from Catalina Offshore products as a very first course of the evening.

Since both tuna sashimi and uni 雲丹 were excellent, I made it very simply. I put splashes of good balsamic vinegar, good olive oil, Kosher salt, freshly cracked black pepper and soy sauce on the bottom of the plate in crisscrossed fashion. I then sliced the chutoro very thinly and place it in one layer on the plate. I sprinkled a halved and thinly sliced red onion and finely chopped garlic chive over the chutoro. In the center, I arrange a circle of thinly sliced cucumber and placed the small mound of uni on top. I garnished with thin nori strips and a dab of real wasabi. I drizzled just a small amount of soy sauce and olive oil over the top. We had this with Napa Cab Angels Landing 2007. This cab is a nice middle-of-the-road Cali cab and went well with this dish but the balsamic vinegar competed a bit with the red wine. For this pairing, I should have omitted the balsamic vinegar. In any case, this is a wonderful dish to start before changing to sake. Oh, the uni was positively excellent.

Making tekkamaki and uni sushi at home 鉄火巻きと雲丹の軍艦巻き

Since we received the shipment of tuna and uni from Catalina, we are "pushing" these items on our menu--lunch and dinner. We gave some serious thought to breakfast but decided to draw the line somewhere. I made this as lunch over the weekend.

At home, I usually make sushi rolls 巻き寿司 or scattered sushi "chirashi" ちらし寿司 but not "nigiri" 握り寿司 which requires the skill that I do not have. Among the sushi rolls, one is called futomaki 太巻き. I actually make a deluxe (?) version which our sushi chef, Hajime, at the long-defunct Japanese restaurant, Mikado, showed me how to make many years ago. This deluxe version uses two nori sheets with both uramaki 裏巻き (the rice layer facing outside) and omotemaki 表巻き (the rice layer inside and the nori outside) combined into one roll.  I am sure I will post it sometime in the future. Another roll I make often is California roll since it is uramaki, it is easier to make (it will not come apart easily like a regular hosomaki 細巻き and the ingredients are readily available at any time in the U.S.- avocado and crab meat. 

This time I made a classic Tekka roll 鉄火巻き using an akami 赤身 portion of the tuna and "Uni no gunkan-maki" 雲丹の軍艦巻き.

First, I make sushi rice. Since my wife (and myself) like a good vinegar flavor, I add as much sushi vinegar (from the bottle, but one which contains real rice vinegar such as Mizkan ミツカン brand ) as the rice can absorb.

Next, I make the base for the Uni sushi called "Gunkan-maki" 軍艦巻き, "gunkan" means a miitary ship since it resembles the hull of a naval vessel (see the flotilla in the lower left image). I just make a small oval shaped rice ball and then wrap a nori sheet (cut 1/2 along the long axis to make a half-width nori sheet and then cut long strips with 1/3 of the width of the half sheet). I use a rice kernel to secure the end of the nori strip to make the nori-rice container as in the lower left image (another technique I learned from Hajime the sushi chef). The lower right is a tray of uni from Catalina.

I put enough uni on the gunkan-maki base to cover the rice (generously).

To make the tuna tekka maki, I cut a long rectangle of akami of tuna for tekka maki. I put a small amount of real wasabi on a small plate.

I cut a full sheet of nori 海苔 in half and place in on the bamboo sushi mat or makisu 巻き簾 (lower left) and spread the sushi rice in a thin layer and smear wasabi along the mid-line. I make sure to leave a 1/2 inch of nori at the far end uncovered, otherwise, the roll will not close or stay closed. To prevent the rice from sticking to my hands, I use cold water with a dash of vinegar in it to moisten my hand. I shake off or wipe off excess moisture from my hands using a tea towel just before touching the rice every time. This keeps my hands cold and prevents the rice from sticking.

I place the rectangles of akami on top of the stripe of smeared wasabi. Since I took these pictures myself, I cannot show how I made the roll more precisely using pictures. Here goes a verbal description: with the edge of nori covered in rice close to me, while holding the tuna with my index fingers in the middle of the roll, I aim the rice covered edge to meet the far edge of the rice layer. I then pull back slightly so the two rice edges make good contact. Then I roll forward again so the nori tab covers the rice seam.  (This step is what assures that the pieces of the roll hold together after they are cut). Once the seal has been made, I squeeze the bamboo mat to form the roll.

Anyway here is the end result. The rice should not come out at the bottom seam and the nori should wrap all around. After making two rolls I used a thin bladed sharp knife, put the rolls next to each other and cut both rolls simultaneously. (I do not have a Japanese yanagi-ba 柳刃 so I use a long "Swedish" fillet knife from Global - for slicing smoke salmon, I suppose - but works very well). I dip the blade into the water vinegar mixture and shake off the excess water before slicing the rolls (all this is to prevent the rice from sticking to the blade of the knife). Imitating a sushi chef, I cut the rolls in half first and then cut the each half into thirds.

This was lunch but we had a one small glass of cold sake. (The taste of vinegared rice demands the accompanying taste of sake). It may not look as pretty as the ones prepared by a pro but this tasted very good. Certainly 100% better than any box of sushi bought at the grocer store.

Sashimi from Catalina Offshore products カタリーナオフショア プロダクツからの刺身

We were deprived of good sushi and sashimi this summer for various reasons. Finally we stopped by our Izakaya substitute, Tako Grill, and enjoyed sake and food, especially seki-saba 関サバ but this "tease" of Japanese food left us wanting more. Then I received an e-mail announcing that Catalina was having a special on several of their products. The targeting of the e-mail couldn't have been better aimed. We responded by ordering a feast of sashimi items from Catalina Offshore products. This time, we ordered fresh blue fin tuna 本マグロ, live amaebi 甘エビ ("live" at least when it was shipped--twitching when it arrived), uni 雲丹, and ankimo 鮟肝. Everything arrived in good condition. The bottom segment of the package had frozen ankimo packed with dry ice and a Styrofoam board separated the fresh fish compartment with plenty of ice packs still mostly solid. The amaebi was a bit too large to my taste (6 to a pound, see picture below) but for something still moving (albeit barely) about as fresh as it can be. The tuna is a 2 lb block with "chiai" 血合い, "akami" 赤身 and "chutoro" 中トロ but no "ootro" 大トロ (this block is toward the tail without a belly portion). As I mentioned, previously, you have to remove the chiai and skin and block out appropriate portions before preparing sashimi. (In my anticipatory zeal to get from tuna block to sashimi as quickly as possible without actually gnawing on the block itself I forgot to take pictures of this preparation process). For some reason, Catalina does not carry toro of fresh blue fine tuna any longer but only frozen Ootoro. 

Here are two sashimi servings to start.

It is an amateurish presentation, or you can say, a true Izakaya style rustic presentation; chutoro (left), akami (right) and amaebi (front). Since amaebi (more like botan ebi or spotted prawn) was large, after removing the head, shelled, and deveined, I cut it into small pieces. It was a cross between Iseebi 伊勢エビ and amaebi and was very sweet with firm texture and was excellent.  The akami and chutoro were very fresh and likewise excellent, although it may not be the very best we ever had.

You can see how big these amaebis are. We used to get amaebi from the company in Alaska but Catalina has much fresher (mostly alive as I mentioned) and better. 

The only problem is that the shrimp heads are too big for deep frying so I made shrimp head miso soup. Some disassembly required for the shrimp head, and nothing delicate about it, you have to use your fingers; to begin, suck out the goodies from the bottom of the head, then dismantle and enjoy all the small bits you can find (whatever than may be). One thing we can say is that the Uni from Catalina is the best, even compared to those we had in Hokkaido or elsewhere in Japan. This is absolutely the best in our opinion; from California, creamy, flavorful and fresh. We had an uni donburi ウニ丼 (sushi rice - with a good amount of vinegar of course - chiffonade of perilla 大葉 and nori 海苔 with a small dab of real wasabi on the top. We did not even need soy sauce since it had such good flavor. 

I think we may OD on sashimi in the next few days. (Two pounds of tuna sashimi and 4 trays of uni are quite a lot for two. Although we did justice to the amaebi, in a surprisingly short period of time). But this is exactly the "fix" we needed.

Sea urchin with preserved sea urchin flavored scrambled egg 雲丹と粒雲丹スクランブルドエッグ

This is a variation on Mark's book p148. I have not yet made the lobster sauce according to the original recipe but I am, again, modifying the original recipe. My mother sent us "preserved" sea urchin called "tsubu uni" 粒雲丹. I do not know the details but they are salted and alcohol is added (and other things I am sure). This type of uni can be preserved for rather a long time. It has quite a different taste (rather salty) and texture from fresh sea urchin but it has its own interesting flavor and texture. You could enjoy this by just "licking" it as you drink sake. Since we got fresh sea urchin, I came up with this dish which is a modification of the recipe in Mark's book p148. The idea is to flavor scrambled eggs with the "preserved" sea urchin and place fresh sea urchin on the top.

I put 1 tbs of cream and a half tsp of the "preserved" sea urchin in a small bowl food processor and mixed them well. Beat one large egg and add to this cream mixture. On low heat, put 1tsp of butter in a none-stick frying pan. Add the egg mixture and using a silicon spatula, scramble rapidly to make a creamy soft scrambled egg. Add cracked pepper (the preserved sea urchin is salty so I omitted salt). Place the scrambled egg in the bottom of a small serving bowl (in my case, the egg shaped bowls), top it with fresh sea urchin. I garnished the egg with chopped chives and the fresh sea urchin with "aonori" powder and drizzled soy sauce with wasabi dissolved in it.

The texture of the egg is very nice. The preserved sea urchin has a rather unique flavor. This is a very interesting and good dish.

Sea urchin and scrambled egg with lobster sauce 雲丹とスクランブルエッグ

Based on Scrambled eggs with sea urchin and  lobster sauce 雲丹のスクランブルエッグ　オーマルロブスターソース (Mark's book p148)

This one is from Mark's book p148. We usually do not want to "cook" good sea urchin, but this recipe looked so interesting we had to try it. Again, I have to start by saying I did not (or could not) follow the recipe precisely. First, we did not want to eat too much egg with uni, second, we did not have a lobster head to make the sauce. I will have to remake the sauce sometime in the future but having a dinner with both lobster and uni coinsiding may not be easy. Maybe I can make the lobster-tomato sauce first and freeze it. So, this time, instead, I used a "gourmet" canned lobster bisque (whenever we have lobster at home, I make lobster bisque from the lobster carcass). Compared to my bisque, this supposedly "gourmet" canned bisque was not really good as a soup but, at least, it had lobster and tomato flavors. I am sure the tomato flavor is from tomato paste. I added a small amount of finely chopped fresh tomato and reduced the bisque a bit, and added a splash of Fino sherry to liven up the taste. I mixed a portion of this with a small amount of smashed anchovy filet off heat until the saltiness was appropriate. I have no idea if this "sauce" is even similar to the original in the recipe.

For the scrambled egg, I used one egg (for two small servigs you see here) and 2-3 tsp of cream with salt and pepper. I melted butter in a small non-stick frying pan on low heat and vigorously stirred using a silicon spatula until a creamy texture was reached but I did not further cook or set the egg as suggested in the recipe since I wanted a soft creamy texture matching that of the sea urchin. I placed this creamy egg in the egg-shaped glass containers and placed uni in the center. I then drizzled the sauce around the perimeter. I did not have chervil so I garnished it with parsley. For one version I browned the uni with a kitchen torch before placing it on the egg as suggested in the recipe (image above on the  right and image below) and, for another, I did not (image above on the left) to compare.

We think browning the uni may add some interesting flavors but, for this dish, it did not make a big difference (although it may give a nice visual effect). The sauce went well (surprisingly), with the lobster flavor and saltiness from the anchovy. But again, we have no idea if this is even close to the original recipe. The egg was very creamy matching the texture of the uni and the proportion of the egg and uni was perfect. So, as a dish, the way I made it, it was a success of sorts. Above all, the containers were perfect!

The egg-shaped glass containers (slightly larger than real eggs) were reportedly used by a Michelin 3 star chef in Virginia, Patrick O'Connell of Inn at Little Washington. He served soft scrambled egg and asparagus tips as a brunch menu to the Queen of England when she was visiting Virginia several years ago. (We do not know if indeed Queen tasted this dish). We saw the recipe and the egg shaped container in a Washington post article. The dish sounded interesting so I ordered the container from Korin and tried to reproduce the recipe. (BTW Korin no longer carries this item).

Last time we were at the Inn at Little Washington, they had this scrambled egg dish as an appetizer and my wife ordered it. It came in the same egg-shaped container you see here but my wife was not too impressed citing that the eggs were bit overcooked. She then observed that the version I made was more creamy!

Sea urchin sashimi and donburi 雲丹の刺身と雲丹丼

We cannot decide if we like ankimo 鮟肝 better than sea urchin "uni" 雲丹 or vice-versa. But the batch of California sea urchin we got this time was particularly excellent. Certainly much better than most we tasted in Japan last time. This one was harvested offshore in California and delivered to us overnight by Catalonia Offshore Products. We can get uni from California and from Maine in the U.S. Maine uni is like "bafun uni" 馬糞雲丹. It is smaller, firmer, darker, and gamier. We prefer the one from California which is bright yellow with a very creamy texture and clean taste.  We enjoy either uni as long as it is fresh and not off-tasting. We gave up ordering uni in sushi bars since the variability of uni quality and freshness is so wide and even after asking the sushi chef if the uni is good and getting his approval, we have had less-than-aceptable uni. Having bad uni turns you off eating any uni very quickly.

We like to first enjoy uni in its pure form, with wasabi and soy sauce and nori seaweed which has a special affinity to uni. I garnish uni with nori strips. I also serve uni on top of slices of lemon. The very subtle lemon flavor is transferred to the uni. This has to be tasted with sake. Aaaah, a fresh ocean taste spreads in your mouth. No other drink will go with uni.

I mentioned earlier in my blog that my wife loves a donburi dish made with uni and ikura (salmon roe) called uni-ikura-don うにいくら丼 and that she had one in Otaru last time we visited Japan. So, by her request, I made a mini uni-ikura-don. Unfortunately I did not do a good job making "golden thread" omelet 金糸卵 this time (I browned the omelet but it tasted the same).  Assembling of this dish starts with a bed of sushi rice. Scatter thinly cut strips of nori, place ikura and uni, garnish with a chiffonade of perilla and golden thread omelet. I dissolved real wasabi in the "sashimi" soy sauce and served it on the side to be poured over. Mmmm...this may be too much of a good thing!