Coleslaw with homemade buttermilk ranch dressing ランチドレッシング コールスロー

This is a variation of coleslaw. Since my wife discovered a high octane buttermilk, she wanted to make salad dressing using it. She found a Ranch dressing recipe on line. This is not our usual or favorite dressing but with this buttermilk, it may be worth it. We simplified/modified it (removing fresh herbs so that the coleslaw would last longer) and made this coleslaw. This post is mostly to document our modification for the dressing.

Using this buttermilk and home-made Greek yogurt, the Ranch dressing came out rather thick and creamy (and hopefully more healthy than if we had used the sour cream called for in the recipe).

First I prepared the cabbage and carrot.

Ingredients:
1/4 head of cabbage
2 medium carrots, skin peeled, sliced thinly on bias and then cut into thin julienne.
Raisin

Directions:
I hand chopped the cabbage and then soaked it in cold water for 10-20 minutes and drained.
I salted and massaged the cabbage and let it sit in a bowl until slightly wilted and some juice came out.
I pressed the cabbage and discarded the any juice accumulated. I mixed in the carrot and raisin.

Dressing:

(1/2 the original recipe)
1/2 - 3/4 cup well-shaken buttermilk
2-3 tablespoons home made Greek yogurt (the original calls for sour cream)
1-2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 clove garlic, minced
1 red onion, finely minced
1 Jalapeno pepper, seeded deveined and finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
Few dashes Sriracha sauce
(1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce and optional suggestion from my wife based on her previous coleslaw recipe)

(Original recipe) 

1 cup well-shaken buttermilk
4 tablespoons home made Greek yogurt (the original calls for sour cream)
4 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 clove garlic, minced
1 red onion, finely minced
1 Jalapeno pepper, seeded deveined and finely chopped
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
Few dashes Sriracha sauce
(1tsp Worcestershire sauce and optional suggestion from my wife based on her previous coleslaw recipe)

This represented 1/2 of the original recipe. The original recipe also called for 1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh tarragon, dill, parsley, chives or celery leaves (or a combination) but we omitted it since we thought these fresh herbs may make the dressing more perishable. Instead, we added finely chopped Jalapeno pepper. The original called for Tabasco. One of the things my wife said is important is to premix the buttermilk in a bowl with a whisk since it tends to separate. Just shaking the bottle, in her opinion, will not do it.

We dressed the cabbage misture generously and seasoned it with salt and pepper after we tasted it.

My wife's original coleslaw dressing had Worcestershire sauce which gave some zing to the dressing. This ranch dressing version is milder and creamer and I sort of like it but my wife said she likes the original.

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.

Buta-jiru 豚汁

Every time we go to our nearby gourmet grocery store, we can not resist getting some pork belly. This time we got about a 1 lb block. I made most of it into "Kakuni" 豚の角煮 but I sliced off some thin strips (called sanmai niku 三枚肉) to use in something else.  I ended up making "buta-jiru" 豚汁. The reasons are multiple. When I posted "Rice with butter and soy sauce", somebody left a comment introducing us to a Japanese TV series  called "Shinya shokudo" 深夜食堂 or "midnight diner" since one of the episodes was about "rice with butter and soy sauce". We managed to watch all episodes available and also a movie. More recently, new, at least we have not watched, episodes called "Tokyo series" became  available on Netflix as a Netflix original series. The opening sequence of all these episodes shows "the master" making buta-jiru 豚汁.  On the top of that, when I posted pork and vegetable stew (recipe from Mark's Izakaya book), I reminisced about "Buta-jiru" and cook-out picnics 炊事遠足 I had when I was in grade school. So, one weekend, I made buta-jiru for lunch.

There is no  precise recipe for this. This is a sort of glorified miso soup with thinly sliced pork belly cooked with Japanese root vegetables and kon-nyaku こんにゃく.

Here you can see daikon, carrot, kon-nyaku and mai-take 舞茸 (hen-of-the-wood) mushrooms. I had just used up all the burdock root so this dish did not include any.

In the Shinya shokudo opening sequence,  "the master" uses shiitake mushroom 椎茸 but I used mai-take since I happened to have it.

Ingredients (amounts are all arbitrary):

Sam-mai niku (thinly sliced pork belly)

Daikon,  Carrot, mushrooms (shiitake or mai-take), kon-nyaku, gobo burdock root, onion (either regular onion or scallion. If you have it Japanese or "Tokyo" scallion is better).

Japanese Dashi broth

Miso (I used a mixture of Koji-miso and Aka-miso). 

Vegetable oil for sautéing.

Directions:

I peeled and cut the root vegetables into bite sized pieces. I soaked the Gobo in acidified water for 10-20 minutes, washed and then drained. I parboiled the Kon-nyaku in water, then washed it in cold running water. Like the master, I hand torn the kon-nyaku into pieces. Hand tearing makes irregular surfaces on which the flavor can cling to (kon-nyaku does not have any flavor just texture so the clinging sauce gives it some flavor). I sliced the scallion on the bias.

I put a small amount of vegetable oil in the pan and sautéed the pork. When some fat rendered out and the pork changed color, I added the root vegetables and kon-nyaku (sans scallion) and mixed so that oil coated the surfaces. I then added the broth to cover the vegetables. I simmered it with a lid on for 20-30 minutes or until all the vegetables were cooked. I dissolved the miso using my miso-koshi 味噌漉しcontraption and added the scallion. Once it came to a boil, I turned off the flame. We had this as a weekend lunch. Although a bowl of rice and small pickled vegetable are usual accompaniments, we just enjoyed this soup/stew which was more than enough for us. By the way, this type of combination of dishes is called "Teishoku" 定食 or predetermined multi-item meals very popular in "public eateries" or 大衆食堂. In this particular case, "Butajiru teishoku" 豚汁定食 which is the only set menu item at the midnight diner.

Cold simmered daikon with miso chicken sauce 冷製大根のチキン肉味噌のせ

This is another "using-up" leftover barbecued chicken dish. I found that leftover cooked chicken, especially dark meat, can be versatile when cut into small pieces and used in various different dishes. Here, I came up with a miso chicken meat sauce with yuzu citrus and served it on cold simmered daikon with other vegetables.

I could have served this warm (both daikon and sauce) but the weather was still hot so I served everything cold.

I added additional Yuzu skin (chopped and previously frozen came in a pouch), which added additional bursts of fresh yuzu flavor.

The campari tomato was served with the skin removed (by briefly dunking in boiling water, then into ice water to peel). I soaked the skinned tomatoes in dashi broth seasoned with light colored soy sauce. The broccoli was just blanched and cooled.

Daikon preparation:

I cut 1 inch thick round of daikon and peeled.

I placed the daikon in cold water to cover completely and added a pinch of uncooked rice.

I simmered it for 30 minutes.

I made a Japanese kelp broth (water and piece of kelp), seasoned with salt, mirin and light soy sauce and simmered the precooked daikon for another 30-40 minutes or until tender.

I let it cool in the broth and then placed in the refrigerator overnight.

Miso chicken meat sauce:

Ingredients:

Barbecued dark chicken meat (2 legs worth), deboned and finely chopped.

Ginger, finely chopped

Miso, 3 tbs or more

Sugar, 1tbs

Mirin, 2 tbs

Peanut oil with splash of dark sesame oil, 1tsp

Yuzu skin, 1/2 tsp (chopped, previously frozen)

In a small saucepan, I added the oil and sauteed ginger and added the finely chopped chicken and kept sauteing for several minutes then added miso, sugar, sake and mirin. I kept mixing on low flame until the consistency became thick (about the same consistency of the miso). I added a splash of sesame oil at the end and mixed well. I cut the fire and mixed in the Yuzu skin. I let it cool to the room temperature and refrigerated.

I served this dish cold. I placed the daikon in a bowl and added the chicken-miso sauce on the top and garnished with yuzu skin. The skinned campari tomato was kept in the same broth as the daikon overnight. The broccoli was simply blanched in salted water and refrigerated.

This is the good way to use the dark meat from barbecued chicken which can sometimes be a bit chewy. The smokey flavor goes well with the sweet, salty and nutty miso flavor. The fresh taste of Yuzu is also nice. We like this cold vegetable appetizer.

Succotash サカッタシュ

We thought we already posted "succotash" but found out we did not. So, this is our version of succotash. This must be an archetypical American food which may have originated with native Americans (at least the name is from "sohquttahhash" in Narragansett language meaning "broken corn kernels"). Traditionally, lima beans are used in addition to corn,  but I used "edamame" 枝豆  soybeans. (digression alert: My wife commented that she was glad I substituted the edamame for the lima beans. She mentioned that lima bean succotash was a staple of childhood summer dinners and she remembered the tedium of carefully separating the corn, which she liked, from the lima beans, which she did not like. The alternative was suffering through the starchy large lima beans at the expense of enjoying the sweet corn.)

There are so many variations of this dish and I did not follow any particular recipe.  This could be a vegetable side dish for meat but it can also be served as a small snack like I did here.

Ingredients:

Corn kernels, corn on the cob briefly boiled in salted water and kernels removed using a knife (see second picture below).

Edamame soybeans, shelled and frozen, briefly boiled in salted water and drained (see the third picture below).

Tomato, skinned and diced

Onion, finely chopped

Garlic, finely chopped

Bacon, one strip

Salt and pepper to taste

(The amounts are all arbitrary)

Direction:

In a frying pan, I cooked a strip of bacon on low heat until the fat rendered and the bacon became crispy. I took out the bacon and kept it on a plate lined with a paper towel.  I left the bacon drippings in the pan and added the onion and garlic and sautéed them until cooked (a few minutes). I added the corn, edamame, and tomato and cooked them for few minutes stirring. I added the crumbled bacon and seasoned it with salt and pepper.

Cooked in bacon drippings with onion and garlic, this tasted pretty good. Although I only used one strip of bacon, the bacon flavor permeated the dish. We much prefer the soybeans rather than lima beans (even if they are small) which are usually used in this dish. 

Simmered Taro and bamboo shoot 里芋とたけのこの煮物

Before we started getting Sushi Taro's New Year's osechi box, I used to make a three tier osechi box myself. I filled the bottom layer with simmered vegetables and chicken dish called chikuzen-ni 筑前煮. The type of potato used in that dish is sato-imo 里芋  which was always available in my old Japanese grocery store. I see sato-imo at our new Japanese grocery store very rarely. The other day, when I was in our regular grocery store, I saw sato-imo which was labeled as "Malanga" and "Eddoe" (its scientific name Colocasia esculenta) from Costa Rica (#1 in the composite picture below). Taro is slightly different but the most common variety in the US. Common among these variations is that it is taste like potato but it is a thickened underground stem called corms. I am sure different cultures have different cultivars and names other than those I just mentioned but whatever the name, they appear to be essentially similar in texture and taste. Even in Japan, there is another variation of sato-imo called ebi-imo 海老芋 , ("ebi" means shrimp. It is long and curved resembling the tail of a shrimp). This is famous for its use in traditional Kyoto cuisine 京料理.  Actually, the one I got this time is more similar in shape to ebi-imo than Japanese sato-imo.

I made this classic New Year simmered vegetable dish. This time, I did not include any protein such as chicken.

I also added bamboo shoots or takenoko 竹の子, kon-nyaku こんにゃく, carrot and garnished with blanched snap peas or sugar snaps.

Ingredients: (for 10 small servings like shown in pictures above).

Taro (sato-imo): 10 (see directions below for preparation).

Bamboo shoot: one package, previously boiled and packed in a plastic pouch, cut into 4 pieces lengthwise, then the bottom thick portions cut into half inch thick cross pieces and the top cut lengthwise.

Kon-nyaku (Konjac): 1 cake, hand torn into small bite sized pieces and par-boiled and drained (#5).

Carrots: 2-3 large, peeled and cut in bite size ("Ran-giri" 乱切, cut on the bias as you turn 90 degree).

Bonito and kelp broth (3-400ml, enough  to cover the vegetables).

Sake

Mirin

Soy sauce (I used light colored soy sauce or "Usukuchi" 薄口醤油).

Sugar snap peas: ends trimmed, blanched, for garnish

Directions:

The classic Japanese satoimo is usually shorter than the one I got this time. This "Malanga" or "Eddoe" from Costa Rica (#1 in picture below) may more closely resemble "Ebi-imo" 海老芋. If this is more uniform rounder Japanese sato-imo, you could remove the skin by rubbing against each other in water which makes a nice rounded shape but I removed the skin by cutting off the top and the bottom and making hexagonal cylindrical shapes (making 6 faceted cylinders, a bit similar to making "tourne"). This is  called "Roppou-muki" 六方むき meaning six facet peeling in Japanese culinary parlance (#2, I now realized this one only has 5 facets!). 

I soaked them in cold water and washed them changing the water few times (#3). 

I made broth from a dashi pack (bonito and kelp), seasoned with sake, mirin and light colored soy sauce (#4). Some may add sugar and the amount of soy sauce could be variable depending on your preference. I made it more Kyoto style or "usu kuchi" meaning mildly seasoned. I added soy sauce in several increment as I tasted.

I placed the satoimo in the broth (#4) when it started simmering I added the carrot, bamboo shoot and kon-nyaku (#5 and #6). I let it gently simmer with a lid on for 30 minutes or until sato-imo is cooked.

This is a very subtle dish but has so many different textures. Sato-imo has very unique texture (creamy slightly viscous), which is difficult to describe.  The small serving in the picture is perfect for a drinking snack for us.  For a side dish eaten with rice, I will served at least twice as much and probably add more soy sauce and/or salt.

Savory cauliflower and spinach Panna cotta カリフラワーとほうれん草のパンナコッタ

My wife came up with this dish. How this dish evolved is kind of interesting. It all started when my wife spotted a recipe for English pea panna cotta . She really wanted to try it. So I was tasked to get several bags of frozen petite peas and some cream for the recipe. I forgot to get the peas and the cream. Then I used up whatever cream we had in the fridge to make lobster bisque. Not to be deterred, my wife chose to do some substitutions. We had a head of cauliflower which I already separated to florets and washed. We also had a bag of spinach. Since we had some previous experience making cauliflower puree, she proposed making "cauliflower and spinach panna cotta".  It turned out to be very good. I served it with watercress and blanched sugar snaps dressed with EVOO (extra-virgin olive oil) and syrupy balsamic vinegar with freshly cracked black pepper.

All green and, perhaps, it would have been perfect for St. Patrick's day.

I decided to add more bright colors and made two kinds of sweet pepper coulis (red and yellow) and sweet vinegar marinated red radish slices.

I think I may have overdone it, this time. Maybe a little less red color would have been more "restful to the eye".

Ingredients(for Cauliflower panna cotta, about 8 servings):

Cauliflower, 1 medium head, separated into florets, washed.

Spinach, one bag, cooked in a covered pan without adding any liquid. excess moisture squeezed out  #2).

Onion, two, medium, cut into thin strips.

Garlic, two cloves with skin on.

Milk, enough to cover the cauliflower (#1)

Butter, unsalted, 3 tbs

Directions.

1. Add the cauliflower, onion,, garlic, and butter to a saucepan and cover it with milk. Simmer it until the cauliflower is cooked (#1, about 30 minutes) (see P.S. below).

Alternatively, we need not cook the cauliflower in milk. Instead we could cook the cauliflower by steaming, sweat the onions in a pan then use milk to puree the two together.  Then we could heat some milk with about 3tbs of butter in it to bloom the gelatin and that milk would give the proper texture. 

2. Strain the cauliflower and milk mixture through a sieve,  reserving the milk (My wife figured adding butter will make the milk more cream-like).

3. In two batches, I placed vegetables in a blender and added enough milk to puree (with our blender on high speed, it took 30-40 seconds to have a nice smooth puree, #3 and 4). 

I added one of the garlic clover after squeezing it out of the skin in one of the batches. After tasting this batch, I did not add the garlic to the other batch.

4. I combined the puree in a bowl (#5) and tasted. I added few pinches of salt which made the sweetness of the vegetables to come out.

5. I sprinkled 3 envelopes of unflavored gelatin on about a half cup from the remaining milk (still hot) and whisked it to dissolve and then added to the puree making sure all the gelatin was dissolved into the puree.

6. I poured the final mixture into small individual ramekins (#6).

7. Covered them with plastic wrap and refrigerated until set (several hours).

8. To unmold, I placed the ramekin in hot water for few seconds and also ran a thin bamboo skewer (or a thin narrow knife blade) around the edge and inverted on the center of the plate.

Ingredients (For sweet pepper coulis):

Red and yellow sweet pepper, 1 each

Shallots, 3, finely chopped and sauteed in olive oil until soft

Vinegar (I used rice vinegar) 4 tsp

Olive oil (EVOO) 4-6  tbs

Salt

Directions:

1. I roasted the peppers in the toaster oven on broil mode, for about 20 minutes, turning every five minutes so that all the surfaces got slightly blackened. I immediately placed them in a Ziploc bag and let them steam for 10-20 minutes or until cooled down (#1).

2. I removed the skin, stem end and seeds (#2).

3. Cut it in small cubes (#3).

4. Place the #3, half of the shallot, juice accumulated in the bag, vinegar, and EVOO in a blending container (#4).

5. Using an immersion blender in high speed, blended into thin sauce (#5). If the consistency is too thick, you could add a bit of water. I tasted and added a pinch of salt.

6. I repeated for the yellow pepper to make red and yellow pepper coulis (#6).

Ingredients (For pickled red radish):

Small red radish, 3, top and bottom end removed, sliced into thin rounds (I used a Japanese mandoline).

Sweet vinegar, 1/4 cup (I took a short cut, and poured sushi vinegar from a bottle into a Pyrex ramekin with 2 tsp of sugar, and microwaved until the vinegar was warm and the sugar melted).

I immediately marinated the radish slices, covered with plastic wrap and let sit for a few hours. The red color leached out and the radish slices become a nice homogeneous pink.

This was an unequivocal success! This savory panna cotta has a nice light green color exactly like the picture of English pea panna cotta. We used gelatin instead of agar-agar suggested in the original recipe since we are not serving this to vegetarians. The texture came out just right without jello-like consistency but very creamy and also kept its shape. You can taste the spinach but if you were not told. you could not guess this is made of cauliflower.  Although I overdid with the second versions with sweet pepper coulis and marinated radish slices, the mixture of sweet sour flavor really worked. Next time I will use more discretion. We found another good way to use cauliflower.

P.S. Some days later, since I had a head of cauliflower which was already one week old, I decided to make cauliflower puree. I followed the recipe from the Washington Post. As per the recipe, I first steamed the cauliflower for 8 minutes and made a puree using my Cuisinart. But the result was disappointing with a mealy texture despite the fact I ran the food processor for quite some time. It never attained the smooth and creamy puree my wife made in the current recipe. I thought it had something to do with how the cauliflower was cooked. She cooked the cauliflower in milk and butter. Disappointed, I just put my cauliflower puree in a sealed container in the fridge thinking I would have to come up with a way to use it. 

The same day, my wife wanted to try the English pea pannacotta she had originally wanted to make using the original recipe, since we had all the ingredients this time. When we pureed the peas, we used the blender instead of the cuisinart, and the pea puree came out very smooth and velvety. We didn't even have to sieve it. It dawned on me that maybe I should have run my cauliflower puree through the blender instead of the cuisinart. So I retrieved my coarse textured puree added a bit more milk and let it whir. The result was amazing. My cauliflower puree became silky smooth. Moral of the story, use the blender to make cauliflower or pea puree--not the cuisinart. 

Asparagus and onion sauté with Camembert アスパラと玉ねぎのカマンベール炒め

I saw this recipe on line.  I happened to have all the ingredients including peeled and blanched asparagus and decided to try it. We had this with our usual red wine.

Camembert cheese completely melted forming the sauce leaving behind a few rinds for a burst of flavor.

Ingredients (for 2 small serving):

Onion, Sweet, one medium cut into small half moon wedges.

Asparagus, 8-10, woody bottom removed, bottom half peeled and blanched in salted water for few minutes. Cut in half.

Camembert cheese, 50grams (I may have used more), with rind left on cut into small wedges.

Olive oil 1tsp

Soy sauce, light colored, or "Usukuchi" 1tsp

Black pepper

Directions:
Saute the onion in a small amount of olive oil for a few minutes until soft, add the asparagus and saute a few more minutes. Then add the cheese and light colored soy sauce. When the cheese melts, it is done. Season generously with freshly cracked black pepper.

We had this with Numanthia Termes 2012 (Tempranillo). The 2012 vintage did not get as high a score as the prior vintages but RP=90 is not too bad. This has been our favorite everyday wine from Toro, Spain. This wine cut through the richness of this dish. I think I may have to reduce either the amount of olive oil I use to saute the onion or the amount of camembert cheese next time; it was a bit oily. The soy sauce and camembert cheese are a really good combination, though. Finally,  the addition of freshly ground black pepper made this dish.

P.S. We had several bottles of this wine. Some came from an on-line wine store and some came form a local wine shop. We opened a bottle one evening and it had a strange nose, almost chemical, but not "corked" smell. The taste was also terrible,  thin and acidic and no fruits. For comparison, we opened another bottle of Termes which was good. We have to conclude that although it was not corked, the previous bottle was poorly handled/stored (not by us). We don't know which store this particular bottle came from. We ended up pouring the bottle out; our "Sink God" drank well that night.  Unfortunately, we occasionally have similar experiences with other wines.

Spring salad with broccolini and scrambled egg 春の菜の花風サラダ

We are having record warm temperature in our area. Some of the cherry trees are starting to turn pink and ready to bloom.  They are predicting the cherry blossoms along the tidal basin will be at their peak the last week of March. To me  rapeseed plant or nano-hana 菜の花 is one of the classic spring vegetables. As I posted before, the substitutes we can get here are either broccolini or rapini. The weekend before I prepared broccolini (quickly blanched) and made this yellow and  green salad on one of the subsequent weekdays. I thought the bright yellow of the eggs and deep green of the broccolini would be very spring-like.

For dressing, I made sesame mayonnaise.

Since I had ripe tomatoes I also added some wedges to make this spring salad.

Ingredients (for two servings):

Broccolini, 8 stalks, only flower ends, quickly blanched in salted boiling water and cooled.

Eggs, two large

Cream, 1-2 tbs

Tomato, one medium, skinned and cut into small wedges.

For Dressing:

Mayonnaise, 1tbs

White sesame seeds, 1 tbs, dry roasted in a frying pan and them ground using a Japanese pestle and mortar or suribachi すり鉢.

Light colored soy sauce, about 1 tsp

Directions:

I placed the broccolini and wedges of tomato in a bowl. I mixed the eggs and cream and beat well and scrambled with a bit of butter. I made sure the eggs were just cooked and fluffy. I seasoned with salt and added to the bowl. I topped with the dressing.

Freshly roasted and ground sesame really made the difference in the taste of the dressing.  Although broccolini does not have the bitterness of nano-hana, it is very close visually. This was a very colorful spring like salad perfect for the warm evening we were having.

Mac and Cheese with cauliflower puree カリフラワープピュレー入りマックアンドチーズ

When my wife made baked cauliflower with cauliflower puree, we were impressed with how creamy the puree was without much fat. My wife suggested making Mac and Cheese with cauliflower puree instead of Bechamel sauce. So, one weekend, we made this new cauliflower puree Mac and cheese. We made two versions. One was topped with a mixture of panko bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese (see below). It came out nicely browned with a crunchy crust.

Under the crunchy topping was a creamy cheesy sauce clinging to the macaroni.

The second version was topped with grated cheddar cheese.

Again, underneath was the warm, cheesy sauce with macaroni.

Ingredients: (this makes about 8 servings in small ramekins such as the one seen above).

One head of cauliflower, separated into small florets.

Enough milk to cover the florets.

1 tbs unsalted butter

One large Jalapeno pepper, seeded and deveined, finely chopped (optional)

Cheeses (we used smoked gouda, fresh goat cheese, parmesan and cheddar) grated (#3)

Elbow macaroni, half box, cooked, drained, seasoned with salt, rice vinegar and then coated with olive oil (#5).

Directions:

Making cauliflower puree is exactly the same as posted before. Briefly; separate a head of cauliflower into florets, cook it in milk until tender with a pat of butter and red pepper flakes. I added one medium onion sautéed (instead of baked), adjusted the amount of milk to attain the right consistency while blending using a immersion mixer (#1). For variation, I added sautéed and finely chopped Jalapeno pepper (seeded and deveined) (#2). For cheeses, I used smoked gouda,  fresh goat and parmesan (#3) and mixed into the puree and cooked over the lowest flame until the cheeses incorporated (#4). I added the cooked macaroni (#5) into the cauliflower puree cheese mixture (#6). Then added the cheddar cheese (#7).  The reason for adding the cheddar at the last moment is to prevent it from being over cooked and getting grainy in texture. Meanwhile, I mixed panko bread crumbs, grated parmesan and olive oil (#8).

I placed the macaroni mixture in small ramekins (#9 and 10). I topped one with the panko/parmesan mixture (#11)  and the other with grated cheddar (#12). Baked in 350F oven for 15 minutes. If the top is not browned enough, place it under the broiler until the top browns nicely.

The end result: Both version were good but the sauce/puree was a bit grainy as compared to the cauliflower puree we made before. We were wondering if this is something to do with the cheeses we used, although we took precaution not to overcook cheddar cheese which get grainy after long cooking. We do not know how much calories/fat we are saving by substituting bechamel with cauliflower puree but certainly this is a good alternative. Compared to bechamel based Mac, this cauliflower puree did not get thick even after baking. We liked the one topped with bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese.