Nine appetizers served in nine divided plate version 2

This is the second version of nine small appetizers served on the nine space divided plate. Although it was not intentional it turned out that I did not have even one repeat of the items I presented in the previously posted nine appetizers. But this time I did include two store-bought items that I got from our Japanese grocery store; Chinese-style octopus salad and fish cakes. But I made the remaining 7.

The top row left is blanched edible chrysanthemum or “shun-giku” 春菊 shown in detail below, dressed with x4 Japanese noodle sauce and mixed with generous amount of dried bonito flakes or “kezuri-bushi”  削り節. It has very distinct flavors which we really like.

The 1st row, middle is my ususal “dashi-maki” だし巻き Japanese omelet. This time I added dried green nori or “aonori” 青のり. I garnished it with julienne of green perila or “aoziso” 青紫蘇.

The next dish is a Chinese-style octopus salad or 中華風タコサラダ. It is pretty good and we like it.

The center row, left is hijiki seaweed, deep fried tofu and carrot stir fry or ひじきと油揚の炒め物.

The 2nd row center is one I just made this morning. Fried egg plant and mushroom simmered in broth or ナスと椎茸の揚げ浸し. The mushrooms include fresh shiitake and brown shimeji. This is served cold with garnish of blanched green beans.

The 2nd row left is my usual burdock root stir fry ゴボウのきんぴら.

The 3rd row left is a cold skinned Campari tomato. I cross cut the top halfway-through and poured on some Irizake  煎り酒 and special sushi vinegar (both from the Rice Factory). Irizake is boiled down sake seasoned with “umeboshi” picked plum 梅干し, kelp and bonito flakes. The sushi vinegar is a special kind from “Echizen 越前” or present day Fukui 福井.  It tastes milder and better than our usual (Mizkan brand). I topped this with fine julienne of  “Gari” がりsweet vinegar marinated thinly sliced ginger root (usually use to accompany sushi) and perilla. I got this idea from one of the food blogs I follow but I did not follow the recipe exactly.

The 3rd row center is store-bought fish cake which I heated up in the toaster oven and dressed in x4 Japanese noodle sauce and yuzukosho.

The 3rd row right is my usual “asazuke” 浅漬け picked (salted) vegetable which includes cucumber, carrot, nappa cabbage and daikon radish. I also added “shio konbu” 塩昆布, and ginger. The asazuke is about two weeks old but still tasted fresh (I attribute this to the fact I added a bit more salt - more than the usual 3% - and added a small amount of Vodka when I made it. While it didn’t alter the overall taste, I think this makes the asazuke last longer without becoming sour).

After enjoying these 9 small dishes both of us were quite full and did not eat anything else. All the wonderful different flavors and textures made a really enjoyable dinner.

Root Vegetable Stew 根菜の煮しめ

“Nishime” or “Nitsuke” 煮付け, 煮しめ is a type of traditional Japanese cooking method in which food items are simmered in seasoned broth. I have posted many variations mainly based on what was simmered in the seasoned broth. I understand that there are differences between “Nishime” and “Nituske” but that is too esoteric for me. The broth can be based on either vegetarian (kelp, dried mushroom and vegetables) or more commonly including  bonito flakes, kelp, and other dried fish. The basic seasonings are soy sauce, mirin, sake or sometimes sugar. Food items in nitsuke could be vegetables especially root vegetables, mushrooms, fish cakes, tofu, chicken or fish. I made this because I had a package of boiled renkon lotus root 蓮根 which I needed to use. I also got assorted frozen fish cakes for oden and boiled frozen “satoimo” 里芋 taro root (this is the first time I got this, I usually get fresh ones and prepare them myself) and also a package of “shirataki” noodles tied into a knot called “musubi-shirataki” 結び白滝.  Using these ingredients, I made this without much effort. It was nothing special but a homey, gentle and comforting dish. The picture below shows daikon (left), renkon (center), satoimo (bottom left), fish cake (bottom righ). I also added blanched green beans and carrot.

The layer below shows three different kinds of fish cakes (straight chikuwa ちくわ), chikuwa with squid ika-chikuwa イカちくわ, ganmodoki がんもどき(all cut in half) and a knot of shirataki “musubi-shirataki 結び白滝”. Please notice, the taro “satoimo” is perfectly shaped since this is frozen packaged one.

Using prepared vegetables and assorted fish cakes, makes it much easier to make this dish. Beside using prepackaged items, the recipe is essentially the same as I previously posted.

“Canned mackerel and hanpen” Satsuma-age like fish cake 鯖缶とはんぺんの薩摩揚げ

Canned mackerel or “saba-kan” 鯖缶 is a very popular canned fish item in Japan and is readily available in the U.S. Upon inspection, of the canned mackerel in our pantry, I realized that the “Best used by” date had just passed on one of the cans. (I thought canned food lasted forever but that is apparently not the case). I needed to use this can fast and I then saw a perfect  recipe of fried fishcake on the Japanese website I follow using canned mackerel and “Hanpen” fishcake はんぺん.  This type of fishcake is called “Satsuma-age” さつま揚げ, which is a very common dish served grilled in Izakaya. Although I attempted to make Satusma-age from scratch, it was not quite authentic due to the lack of appropriate kinds of fish. The current version is interesting because instead of using ground fish meat “surimi” すり身 which is the authentic way to make Satuma-age this recipe used a mixture of canned mackerel and hanpen.  I served this with the usual grated ginger and soy sauce. It does not have the texture of authentic Sastuma-age but this was good; crispy outside and tender inside with the firmer texture of edamame and carrot. It all worked. The inclusion of ginger and deep frying toned down the otherwise strong flavor of the mackerel. This is a perfect dish with sake.

Ingredients:
One can of boiled (Mizu-ni 水煮) mackerel (190 grams with the liquid, about 150 grams fish meat), drained and crumbled
2 hanpen steamed fish cakes, frozen, thawed (240 grams), cut into small pieces.
1 tbs potato starch
1 tsp sugar
30 grams julienned carrot(1/3 of medium carrot), boiled or microwaved for 30 seconds
60 grams cooked and shelled edamame
1/2 tsp grated ginger

Peanut oil for shallow frying

Directions:
Mix all the ingredients until completely incorporated (The original recipe placed everything in a plastic bag and hand massaged it to make the dough, I did not have the patience to do that so I used an immersion blender, #1).
Mix in the edamame and carrot and make flat ovals (I made 8) (#2)
Add the oil to the frying pan to the depth of 5mm and heat to around 350F and shallow fry for 3 minutes (#3)
Turn over and fry the other side for 3 minutes (#4)
Drain and serve immediately (or once refrigerated, toaster-oven to warm).

This is not Satsuma-age but it is a nice fishcake and we really like it. Since the ingredients (hanpen and canned mackerel) are easy to get, this is a good and easy dish to make.

New Year 2022 Jan 3 Salmon three ways 一月三日鮭尽し

We have been enjoying the items from the Sushi Taro osechi box. After indulging in a serving of wonderful dishes from the box which go perfectly with sake,  I served this plate as the “second course”.  The red and white fish cake or "kouhaku kamaboko" 紅白蒲鉾 (upper left in the picture) came from the osechi box (they were the last four slices). I made a deep pocket in each and stuffed the pink one with the leftover Maruhide sea urchin shutou 丸秀雲丹の酒盗 topped with a dab of wasabi. I topped the white one with Ikura marinated in soy sauce イクラの醤油ずけ topped with strips of nori.

The remaining items were all different salmon dishes which I prepared for New Year. Starting from right upper, clock wise, is salmon nanban 鮭の南蛮漬け、Russian marinated salmon 鮭のロシア漬け, and finally salmon kelp roll 鮭の昆布巻き. These three salmon dishes all have different textures and flavors. For the salmon nanban, the salmon was dredged in flour and fried before being marinaded in sweet vinegar which gave it a bit firmer texture. The Russian marinated salmon started out as thin strips of raw salmon marinated in sake, vinegar and oil without any sweetness. This year I something different. I added dijon mustard to the marinade and emulsified it with the “motor boat” emersion blender. As a result the oil didn’t separate or solidify. Also, the salmon did not “over cook”  and had a lovely soft texture. Finally the salmon kelp roll was simmered for sometime in seasoning broth, producing a yet different soft and moist texture. These are wonderful to enjoy with sips of sake.

Happy New Year 2022 明けましておめでとう 2022.

Happy New Year 2022! The pandemic still persists with the Omicron variant making it debut and spreading so quickly just when we thought things were starting to come under control and using a quote from the movie Jaws "it was safe to go back in the water again".  In any case, both my wife and I took all the precautions; being vaccinated and boosted. We sincerely hope we can get past this soon.

This is the year of tiger according to Chinese/Japanese zodiac signs. We thought we had a larger tiger figurine but these are what we had. The two shown below look somewhat like cats rather than tigers.

The one shown here really looks like a tabby cat. It is made of carved wood and is one of a full set of the 12 zodiac figures we got in Kyoto on one of our trips to Japan. This year, I decided not to get "Kagami-mochi" 鏡餅 new years decoration since we generally do not finish the round mochi inside. 

When it comes to traditional Japanese New Year food, we look forward to and revel in the routine (or some may call it a rut) that we've developed over the years. First off is the expectation of the wonderful goodies contained in the Sushi Taro Osechi 寿司太郎お節 on 12/31/21 or "oomisoka" 大晦日 in Japanese.  Picking it up on New Year eve is an excursion we generally look forward to, although it is a bit of an arduous drive going into town and back. It was especially so this year when we discovered various parts of the route were closed to cars that day and only open to bike traffic. But it was worth it. We will be hitting the Osechi box this evening. We established the tradition of having our usual breakfast with cappuccino and the choice of various holiday breads such as stollen or panettone for the first day of the new year or "Gantan" 元旦. Then, for lunch, we have the more traditional Japanese New Year soup or "Ozouni" お雑煮 as well as some of the auspicious foods served for the New Year as shown in the next picture.

The next picture is a close-up assortment of "good luck" foods I served.

Some came from the Osechi box such as the fish cake 紅白蒲鉾 (#3) (since I did not get any red and white fish cakes this year), small fish じゃこの有馬煮 (#1), shrimp 小海老甘露煮 (#2) and black beans 黒豆 (#5). This year I was lucky to be able to get salted herring roe or Kazuniko 数の子 from the grocery section at Tako Grill. The amount was not too much and just right. I prepared kazunoko marinated in sake lee and miso かずのこの粕味噌漬け(#4). I also served salmon kelp rolls 鮭の昆布巻き and the datemaki 伊達巻 New Year's omelet roll (#7) I like to make based on my Mother's recipe. I also served salmon "Russian" marinade 鮭のロシア漬け which again was something special my mother used to make. I made it some days ago, so it had cured enough to eat. I also served simmered root vegetables including the symbolic "renkon" lotus root, "kobo" burdock root, bamboo shoot and carrot (#9).

Now the "ozouni" New Year soup. New Year is the rare occasion when I use this genuine Japanese lacquerware bowl that my mother gave us many many years ago.

Although you can not see it, the "mochi" 餅 rice cake is placed in a deep fried tofu or "abura-age" 油揚げpouch. I usually seal the pouch with a kanpyo 干瓢 (or gourd peel) tie. But in recent years I have not been able to find kanpyo and I used up what I had for the salmon kelp rolls. So this year, I had to improvise by blanching a whole scallion and using that to tie the tofu pouch. Other items in the soup included shrimp (from Great Alaska seafood), chicken tenderloin from some sous vide chicken breast I made, and vegetables including shiitake mushroom, daikon, gobo, and carrot. For the green, I used rapini flower buds. The shrimp was particularly good. I poached them gently in the broth with the shells on for a few minutes, took them out and shelled them before placing them on the top of the soup.

As usual, I served "daikon namasu" 大根なます with "ikra"  salmon roe いくら and a slice of boiled octopus leg 茹蛸.

Another salmon dish is sautéed salmon in sweet vinegar or 鮭の南蛮漬け.

Although this was lunch, no New Year feast is complete without the symbolic libation of sake (Koshi-no-homare hiyaoroshi 越の誉　冷やおろし). We toasted 2022 with one glass each to commemorate the New Year. This was a good New Year lunch covering many good luck foods. Let's hope it portends similar fortune for the rest of the year.

Squid and daikon, simmered イカ大根

This is a sort of standard dish using squid. I made this dish using the half of the squid package from Vital Choice. I posted a similar dish before. In that post, I mentioned that to make squid tender, you have to cook it either very briefly or a very long time. This time I cooked the squid briefly. I made a slight modification and included a grilled fish cake tube or "Yaki chikuwa" 焼きちくわ. The daikon and even the fish cake absorbed flavor from the squid and this is great "teiban" 定番料理 for the squid. The below is a picture of the serving immediately after I made this dish. 

The daikon was hiding in the bottom.

Ingredients:
170 gram (6oz) frozen squid, thawed, washed, body cut into 1/2 inch thick rings, tentacles separated
3 inch long daikon, peeled, sliced in 1 inch thick pieces
4 thin slices of ginger, cut into small match sticks
1 frozen fish cake tube or "yaki-chikuwa" 焼きちくわ, thawed and cut into bite size
Green beans, cooked, cut in bias, arbitrary amount

For simmering liquid
1 cup (240-50ml) Japanese broth (I used a bonito and kelp dashi pack)
50-60ml "x4 concentrated" noodle sauce (from the bottle) or half and half soy sauce and mirin

For pre-cooking the daikon
Water enough to cover the daikon
One pinch of uncooked rice (or water in which uncooked rice was rinsed "kome-no togijiru" 米のとぎ汁).

Directions:
Simmer the daikon for 30 minutes or longer until cooked though and soft, rinse off the rice grain if needed (you could prepare the daikon ahead and keep this for a few days in the refrigerator before using).

Add the simmering liquid and the ginger in a pan on medium high flame and let it come to the boil, add the squid and cook for 30 seconds to 1 minute or until the squid just becomes homogeneously white/opaque. Take out the squid and set aside.
Add the daikon and the fish cake and turn down the flame and simmer for 15 minutes.
Taste the simmering liquid and if needed add more noodle sauce (or soy sauce/mirin).
Add back the squid and simmer to warm up (30 seconds to one minute).
Garnish with the green beans and serve warm (or cold).

The next day, I served this cold with the other squid dish I made. This dish is usually served warm but even cold, this was a great dish.

The below was two  (quite different) simmered squid dishes both served cold as a starter.

These were a good taste contrast; one is very fresh bright tasting and the other is a very traditional flavor In both dishes the squid was tender due to brief cooking. In the squid-daikon dish, both the daikon and fish cake absorbed the squid flavor. The addition the chikuwa made it taste like you were enjoying more squid than was actually in the dish. 

Nagaimo dressed in cod roe 長芋の鱈子和え

I started going back to our Japanese grocery store again. The last time, I got a fairly good hamachi sashimi. This time, I hit the jack pot! I knew that the Japanese grocery store gets sashimi bluefin tuna or “hon-maguro” or “kuro-maguro” once a month but I did not try to find out when and never went specifically to get sashimi maguro. Just by happenstance I went just a day after they got the maguro. So I had a choice of chu-toro or akami maguro sashimi. I chose a package of “akami” with two good sized portions and also, as an added benefit, some hamachi. That evening, we had a combination sashimi feast of tuna 鮪, hamachi はまち, vinegar cured mackerel しめ鯖 (frozen). I also made imitation “negitoro” 擬制ねぎとろ from this tuna sashimi because the tuna portions were not regular “saku” 柵 blocks for sashimi and I ended up with some odd pieces after slicing the sashimi pieces.  Compared to our usual imitation negitoro which I make from a frozen block of yellofin tuna, this was much much better.  I did not take any pictures, however. Next evening, I served the remaining sashimi, deep fried fish cake or “satsuma-age” さつま揚げ which I also got at the Japanese grocery store (heated in the toaster oven served with soy sauce and grated ginger). I also made a sort of new dish from cod-roe and nagaimo.

Here is the close up of the sashimi dish which I served with dashimaki だし巻き Japanese omelet and sugar snap in salt broth スナップ豌豆の塩びたし.

The next picture shows the “new” nagaimo dish I made. I did this because I had thawed “tarako” たらこ cod roe and found out the membrane in the back was already broken. So, I removed the roe from the remaining sac, mixed it with a small amount of sake, although I did not have a firm idea at the time of what I would make from it. I then remembered that we had a small segment of  nagaimo 長芋 in the refrigerator which had to be used soon. So I just combined the two.  I garnished it with a chiffonade  of perilla and nori. This was a good dish. This tarako was a bit on the salty side but the addition of sake in combination of the crunchy refreshing nagaimo, really worked.

Ingredients:
1 inch segment of nagaimo, skinned, sliced and cut into fat match sticks.
1 tsp sake
One sac of salted tarako, cod roe
Perilla leaves and nori chiffonade for garnish

Direction:
Soak the nagaimo sticks in water with a splash of rice vinegar and gently wash to remove surface sliminess. Blot dry using a sheet of paper towel.
Remove the roe from the sac using the back of the knife and mix it with 1 tsp of sake. Taste and if not salty enough, add soy sauce (mine was salty enough).
Dress the nagaimo and garnish it with the perilla.

So every time I go to our Japanese grocery store, we have a number of  “goodies” for dinner that evening.

Bluefish "sanga" fish cake ブルーフィシュのサンガ

We are getting fresh whole fish from Hmart which has a wider selection at lower prices than other grocery stores in the area. We particularly like mackerel with bluefish as a very good mackerel substitute. Bluefish like mackerel is not considered a particularly prized fish because of its very strong flavor. There are various ways to cook it that turn its flavor into an asset which is why we like it. For that reason, bluefish or mackerel are often smoked in the US. I often simmer either fish in miso and ginger which reduces the fishiness. This time, we got a fairly large bluefish. Since this was a fairly big fish, I ended up with a good amount of fish meat scraped off the bone and tail. I was thinking about making “tsumire” ツミレfish balls cooked in broth but I came up with this dish called “Sanga” さんが which is a type of fisherman’s dish famous in Chiba prefecture 千葉県.  This is usually made from types of fish called “Hikari-mono” 光り物 including mackerel and sardine which have shiny blue skin and tend to get spoiled quickly and can have strong or “fishy” flavors especially when not fresh. Since bluefish to me is in the same ilk, I decided that this dish should  work. This dish is essentially a cooked version of  “namerou” なめろう. The main flavorings are miso and ginger. Here, I put perilla leaves on one side of the fish paddies and included a side of sugar snaps in salt broth スナップ豌豆の塩びたし.

This is the cross section. Some of the fish meat were not completely mashed. The yellow and white bits are chopped ginger and scallion.

Ingredients (made 6 small patties).
Blue fish meat scraped off the bone, tail and other parts, hand chopped using a heavy Chef’s knife, about 150grams (a guess)
Red miso 1 tbs
Ginger cut finely, 1 tsp plus ginger juice from grated ginger (about 1/2 tsp)
Scallion, 4 stalks, finely chopped
Potato starch (katakuri-ko) 2 tsp
Dark sesame oil 1/2 tsp
Perilla leaves (4-6 depending on the size)

Directions:
Mix all ingredients well except for the perilla leaves.
Divide the mixture into 6 equal portions.
Lightly oil hands and make the portions into flat discs and place the perilla leaves on one side (#1) in the third picture).
On a medium low flame with a small amount of neutral oil, first cook the side without perilla leaves until nicely browned (#2).
Flip it over and cook the other side for another 1 minute or so or until done (#3 and #4).

 This is a good way to use scrap fish meat from the bluefish. The double doses of ginger juice and finely chopped ginger add ginger flavor but not overwhelmingly so. The miso flavor and sesame oil are a good combination. I am not sure if I can taste the perilla leaves. It warmed up nicely by microwaving.

Salmon cake サーモンケーキ

When it comes to what we eat and how we prepare it, we sometimes find ourselves in a rut. For example, almost every week I get a filet of salmon weighing 1 and 1/2 lbs; "the portion of the filet close to the head, please". I scale and remove the belly portion, and make 4 filets with the rest. I salt and dry them in the refrigerator with the skin side up for few days before cooking. This preparation results in really wonderful crunchy skin when the salmon is cooked. We snarf up the cooked skin from all the filets like potato chips and eat them along with 2 of the filets. We use the remaining filets for salmon salad which we then eat over the next week. To break this rut, I attempted to make salmon cakes from the dried cooked salmon. Since the salmon was cooked, I needed some kind of binder to make the salmon into cakes. I decide to use raw shrimp paste. The cakes held together and came out nicely. Interestingly, however, they tasted primarily of salmon without a hint of shrimp.

Ingredients:
3 small salmon filets, cooked and skin (removed) (eaten previously while still crispy after salmon was first cooked). Crush them in a Ziploc bag to make small flakes.
6 frozen raw shrimp (I used Argentinean red shrimp), thawed, shelled, and made into a paste by chopping them finely with a chef's knife.
1/2 onion, finely chopped and sautéed in olive oil until transparent, let it cool.
1 tbs chopped fresh dill
Salt and pepper for seasoning

For dredging
flour, egg water and Panko bread crumbs

Oil for deep frying

Directions:
Mix the ingredients. I was not sure if I would have to add more binders such as flour and egg but the shrimp paste worked well and I could make small cakes (#1) without much difficulty. I dredged them in flour, egg water and Panko (#2). Deep fried for a few minutes turning occasionally until golden brown and cooked through (the only ingredient that needed to be cooked was the shrimp paste) (#4).

This was a sort of proof of concept but the shrimp paste really worked well as a binder without adding strong flavor of its own. Making salmon cakes this way may be a bit of work as compared to using uncooked salmon or making salmon salad but it is another good way to use leftover cooked salmon. Drying the filets intensifies the flavor in a very good way. The cakes reheated nicely in the toaster oven making a very nice appetizer. Great snack to start the evening.

Six "otoshi" appetizers お通し6種類

Although I secretly aspire to come up with 6 appetizers to start a meal like we enjoyed at two special izakayas, "Suiko" 酔香 or "Shuhai" 酒杯  in Japan, my appetizer count usually falls short. But one evening I found I could fairly easily come up with a set of 5 appetizers.  After giving it some thought I realized I could make one more for a total of six. Yay! The extra dish, however, did not make the group pic. Its portrait is, nonetheless, shown below.

The upper row from left to right are Chinese-style squid salad (store-bought) with my sugar snap in salt broth, grilled fish cake (store bought) with blanched broccolini dressed in mustard soy sauce, Russian marinated salmon (leftover from the previous evening). (It had been marinading for 2 days by then). The lower row from left to right are octopus leg, cucumber slices and Campari tomato dressed in sumiso sauce and "mizuna" oshitashi 水菜のお浸しtopped with bonito flakes.

Although it missed the group picture, the sixth appetizer was; salmon sashimi and avocado cubes dressed in soy sauce, sesame oil, chiffonade of perilla and finely chopped garlic. The salmon was leftover from the prior evening. I made a slight modification by salting one side and searing it with a kitchen torch before cutting it into cubes. This added an additional grilled flavor and slight crusty texture.

The dish shown below is Chinese-style squid salad 中華風イカサラダ  bought at our Japanese grocery store. The variation of this appears to be available at Catalina offshore products as well.

Below is a small deep fried fish cake which is almost always available at our Japanese grocery store. This appears to be locally made and is pretty good. We heat it up in the toaster oven. I dressed blanched broccolini florets with mustard soy sauce (I now make several Japanese sauces in small squeeze bottles and store them in the refrigerator for instant use).

This was leftover Russian marinaded salmon I made the night before. This marinaded a total of 2 days and was almost completely "chemically" cooked but the onion was better now (marinating just overnight,  the sweet onion was a bit too raw). I topped this with salmon roe and garnished it with perilla.

The dish below came about due to a mistake I made. I thought I got a bunch of edible chrysanthemum 春菊 but instead it was Japanese mizuna 水菜. I blanched it very quickly for 20 seconds, drained and cooled it down by fanning and squeezed out the moisture (I did this in the morning and kept it in a Ziploc bag in the fridge.) I made this to "ohitashi" お浸し("hitasu" in Japanese is to "soak", I made the sauce with equal parts Japanese dashi and concentrated noodle sauce and  "soaked" the mizuna) and topped it with bonito flakes. My wife preferred edible chrysanthemum but this was different and nice in its own right.

We still had the tip portion of the octopus leg left over. I just cut it up into small chunks and mixed the pieces with vinegared cucumber slices and quartered Campari tomato and dressed in sumiso (from the squeeze bottle I prepared earlier).

So with the help of store-bought and leftover items from the previous evening, I finally made a set of 6 appetizer to start the evening--mission accomplished!

Capelin "nanban" シシャモの南蛮漬け

This is another frozen item forgotten in our freezer. My wife drew my attention to a package of frozen capelin or shishamo シシャモ. Although I was not sure how old this was, it did look and smell OK. I usually serve this grilled but I thought "nanban-zuke" 南蛮漬け may be better since deep frying and marinating in sweet vinegar may eliminate any off tastes if they existed.  We tasted just it after it was deep fried and it tasted good but I went ahead and made the nanban.  I served this as a small appetizer with blanched broccoli rabe (rapini).

Along with this dish, I served store-bought "satsuma-age" fish cake 薩摩揚げ, "dashimaki" omelet だし巻き卵, sugar snap スナップ豌豆の塩びたし, simmered kabocha かぼちゃの煮物(center square plate) and boiled octopus leg with rapini. This was quite a big starter.

Ingredients:
One package (10) "shishamo" capelin thawed
2-3 Tbs potato starch "katakuriko" 片栗粉 for dredging
One sweet onion, halved and cut into thin strips
One medium carrot, peeled and cut into small julienne
Few dried Japanese "nanban" togarashi 南蛮唐辛子 red pepper, cut into small rings
One cup sweet vinegar (one cut rice vinegar, 1/2 cup sugar and 1tsp Kosher salt, boiled to dissolve)
1/2 vegetable or peanut oil for "shallow" frying

Direction:
Dredge shishamo with the potato starch (#1)
Add the onion and carrot in a sealable container and pour the hot sweet vinegar and let it cool to the room temperature (#2)
Shallow fry (or deep fry if you so prefer) in 1/4 inch deep oil (#3) for a few minutes and then turn over and cook another minute or two (#4)
Remove half of the vegetables from #2 and add the fried shishamo (#5)
Add back the vegetables to cover the fish (#6)
Put the lid on and refrigerate for a few hours or overnight.

As a rescue dish for old frozen shishamo, this was quite good. Frying and marinating in sweet vinegar really made it more than edible. Because of the preservative nature of the marinade, we kept enjoying this dish for a week (one small fish at a time). This dish is perfect for cold sake but not great with red wine because of the acidity.

Maitake and chikuwa kinpira 舞茸と竹輪のきんぴら

Since I got maitake 舞茸 (hen of the woods) when I got matsutake 松茸 from Oregon mushrooms, this is the second dish I made from the maitake. This is loosely based on a recipe on-line. I made this as a first "otoshi" appetizer of the evening. I also served dried and seasoned squid strips or "saki-ika" さきいか.

This is a perfect  dish for sake. Fish cake and maitake are a good combination with contrasting texture.

Saki-ika is the last remaining from the package I opened a few days ago. This is a good very popular drinking snack in Japan. We think this goes best with Bourbon and water but sake will do as well.

Ingredients:
One package (1/4 lb) maitake, torn into bite sized pieces, rinsed in water and excess water removed by a salad spinner (#1).
One medium carrot, peeled, sliced on the bias and cut into julienne (#2)
One package (six) small yaki-chikuwa 焼き竹輪 fish cakes, thawed, one cut into 4 long strips (#3)
1 tsp of peanut oil and a splash of dark roasted sesame oil
A pinch of  dried red pepper flakes (as much as you like)
1 tbs mirin
1 tbs soy sauce
Roasted white sesame for garnish

Direction:
In a non-stick frying pan on medium flame, add the peanut oil with a dash of sesame oil and add the red pepper flakes and let it cook a little until fragrant.
Add the carrot and the mushroom and sauté for several minutes until the mushrooms start showing few brown spots (#2).
Add the chikuwa fish cake (#3) and keep sautéing for a few more minutes.
Add the mirin and then soy sauce and braise until the liquid is almost gone. Taste and adjust the seasonings (I added a bit more soy sauce).
Serve immediately or at room temperature with a garnish of roasted white sesame.

The maitake has a meaty texture and earthy flavor. The chiku-wa is soft and slightly sweet. The contrast in textures is very intriguing.The red pepper flakes gave a slight heat to the basic "kinpira" flavor of soy sauce and mirin. Everything comes together. This is a good starter. We had this cold later and it was still quite good.