Uni shutou with salmon roe 雲丹酒盗いくら入り

The last time we bought fresh uni from Maruhide 丸秀, we also got a few “uni shutou” 雲丹酒盗including one with salmon roe 雲丹酒盗いくら入り which was a new choice for us. So, one weekend evening, I served this with our usual squid shiokara イカの塩辛. I also served chawanmushi 茶碗蒸し and simmered Kabocha squash カボチャの煮物. These were nice starters.

Left in the picture below is uni shutou with ikura. Obviously, this is a great combination and we, especially my wife, loves uni-ikura donburi ウニいくら丼. Right is our usual squid shiokara. Both are perfect for sipping sake, although you do not need much, just a bit of taste to go with sake.

I served this chawanmushi cold. I often top this with ikura or uni or both but not this time. I made the dish with shrimp and chicken in addition to shiitake. I added scallion and sugar-snap towards the end of cooking.

The picture below shows simmered Japanese kabocha squash カボチャの煮物. It’s a classic.

This was great start of the evening and the combination of uni and ikura shutou is definitely a favorite.

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.

Sushitaro Osechi 2022 寿司太郎お節 2020

As always, we are so spoiled to have Sushitaro osechi.

This is a picture of the upper box.  I am not going into the details but its all good stuff. Many items are hidden behind and under the items on the top.

This is the lower box.

This was what we ate from the box the evening of January 2. I just served whatever caught my eye. This round was mainly items that go well  with sake.

The next picture shows is an assortment of goodies. I lightly heated (toasted) “Karasumi” 唐墨 mullet roe or botargo, and wagyu roast beef 和牛ローストビーフ, which makes the beef unctuous melting in you mouth and the karasumi soft with enhanced flavor. Of course, “ankimo tofu” あん肝豆腐　or Monkfish liver terrine is one of our favorites.

In this three compartment plate, I served (from left to right) “Mushi uni” 蒸し雲丹 or steamed sea urchin, “Uni shutou with yuzu-chilli” ウニ酒盗 柚子胡椒 from Maruhide 丸秀 and  “ikura shouyu-zuke”  いくら醤油ずけ soy marinated salmon roe.  I added wasabi-soy sauce to the steamed uni and made a cucumber boat to contain the ikura. All perfect for sake.

After these, we had simmered vegetables (again lightly warmed in the microwave) and finished with a mayo-biscuit my wife made that afternoon (subject of another post).

P.S. In the January 1, 2022 post, I mentioned that we thought we had some better zodiac figurines for the year of tiger but the ones we displayed in the blog were the only ones we had. My wife quickly remedied the situation by ordering two figurines from Japan, one (the first picture) perfectly matches the style we have for the other zodiac animals (it is made from earthenware as a bell called "Do-rei" 土鈴).

The fellows below came from the same kiln as the one above. But they have more accoutrements. Aren't they cute?

Hope we can used these figurines again.

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.

Hiyaoroshi #2 and Uni tasting 冷やおろし＃２、海水うに

This is a continuation of our exploration of the “Hiyaoroshi” sake ひやおろし we recently acquired (with a complementary uni tasting on the side.) As I mentioned before, this sake is seasonal; only available in autumn and until recently, the only way to enjoy this seasonal sake was to visit Japan in autumn. This fall, however, thanks to Tippsy sake, we could enjoy hiyaoroshi here in U.S. So far, we’ve tried 5 different hiyaoroshi sakes. All of them were “Junmai” class but the aging process really “kicked them up a notch” making them taste superior to regular Junmai sake. All the hiyaoroshi we tasted had rich savory and complex flavors with some fruity floral characteristics. We tasted (from left to right) three sakes; “Ooyama”, “Gokyo” and “Kisoji”.

1. Ooyama 大山 (meaning “big mountain”) is from Yamagata prefecture 山形県 (which is famous for many excellent and “cult” sakes including “Juyondai”  十四代). The brewery is “Katou Kahashirou” 加藤嘉八郎酒造. This sake is called “Tokubetsu junnmai” 特別純米. “Tokubetsu" means “special”. My understanding is that this designation does not have an official definition, but usually the rice is polished to 60%. This is the same level of polishing as “Ginjou” 吟醸酒. So, by definition, this type of “Tokubetsu junmai” could also be sold as “Ginjo”. It is up to the brewer to decide what to call it. Junmai is usually characterized by robust and rich flavors while ginjo is characterized by more elegant crisp fruity flavors. So, depending on the aim of the particular sake, the brewer could call it either way. We really like this sake. Quite rich and dry with some acidity．

2. Gokyo 五橋 (meaning “five bridges”  indicating a famous 5 arched bridge called “Kintai kyo” 錦帯橋 spanning Nishiki-river 錦川 in the city of Iwakuni 岩国 (where the brewery “Sakai shuzou”  酒井酒造 is located).  This is labeled as “Junmai”  but again RPR (rice polishing ratio) is reportedly 60%. The flavor profile is very similar to the previous sake; again rich, savory with hint of fruit.

3. Kisoji 木曽路 (meaning “Kiso route ” which is the mountainous route connecting Tokyo or “Edo” to Kyoto in Kiso now a part of Nagano prefecture 長野県.) (Digression alert: We have visited Kiso. It is famous for “Hinoki” trees and deep forested mountains. We brought some Hinoki products from Kiso back with us from our trip and we are still using them after all these years.) The brewery is called “Yukawa brewery” 湯川酒造. It is again “Junmai” class with RPR of 70%. However, it is made using an ancient labor intensive techniqu called “Yamahai” 山廃. This sake is probably our favorite among the five hiyaoroshi we tried.  In addition to a rich savory taste it has some fruitiness with nice crisp acidity (maybe due to the “Yamahai” process).

We are happy with any one of the hiyaoroshi sakes we tried. We hope Tippsy sake continues bring hiyaoroshi next fall. 

Of course, with such libation we needed a good food to accompany it. We got some fresh uni from maruhide 丸秀, prepared two ways. One was uni preserved in salt water or “Kaisui uni” 海水うに (on the left). The other was regular uni preserved with  potassium alum, (in the center). I thought the regular uni had a better texture but my wife tasted a hint of the alum. Of course, the salt water uni was presented as nature intended. I also served “ikura” salmon roe which was marinated in concentrated Japanese noodle sauce or “mentsuyu” 麺つゆ in a cucumber cup.

The sake and these uni (plus the ikura) were made for each other. They went so well together. What a treat!

Renkon "hasami-age" with avocado and cod roe アボカドとたらこのレンコンはさみ揚げ

My wife found an interesting YouTube series called "Kimono Mom".  A former geisha retired early got married, had a daughter, and now became a YouTuber showing Japanese cooking. She has many followers. In any case, we watched some of her episodes. One of the dishes she showed was "Hasami-age" はさみ揚げ meaning stuffing sandwiched between two slices of renkon 蓮根 (lotus root). The “sandwich” is then battered and deep fried. This is a common way of using renkon and I have previously posted such a dish.  The stuffing is usually meat especially chicken. Kimono Mom used a mixture of avocado and spicy cod roe called "mentaiko" 明太子. I happened to have a fresh renkon which I got from Tako Grill (besides packaed and frozen Japanese grocery items, Tako Grill grocery section now has some fresh Japanese vegetables and even sashimi blocks). I did not have "spicy" tarako but I did have frozen tarako. I could make tarako spicy by adding Sriracha. So I have everything to make this dish.

I also had fresh Japanese "shishi togarashi" 獅子唐辛子 pepper. So I just fried it as a side. I served the renkon dish with a wedge of lemon and green tea salt.

This is a rather unique and good dish. The renkon remains crispy and the avocado creamy with salty and lightly spicy (I did not add too much Sriracha) tarako flavors come through.

Ingredients: making 6.
One segment of fresh renkon, peeled and sliced (about 1/2 to 2/3 inch thick, I got a total of 12 slices).
6 perilla leaves
One sac of tarako, roe scraped out from the sac (#1)
One ripe avocado, stone and skin removed (#2)
Sriracha or other hot sauce to taste

For tempura batter
1/4 cup cake flour plus a bit more for dredging the renkon slices
1/4 cup carbonated water

Oil for deep frying

Directions:
Mash and mix the avocado, tarako with the sriracha hot sauce to taste (#3 and #4).
Lightly dredge the renkon slices. Put on a perilla leaf and then 1/6 (2-3 tsp) of the stuffing (#5).
Top the stack with another slice of renkon. Press lightly to secure (#6).

Heat the oil to 320F.

Mix the cake flour and cold carbonated water to make a relatively thin (like crepe batter) tempura batter.

Dip and coat the renkon “sandwich” and deep fry (#7) for fa ew minutes on one side. Turn it over and cook another few minutes then drain (#8) and serve.

I served this cut in half with a wedge of lemon and the green tea salt. We really like this dish. This could be good with beer but since we do not drink beer, we had it with cold sake.

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.

Raised Buckwheat Blini cooked in a “platar”

After making the blueberry buttermilk pancakes, my wife was leafing through the pancake section of the newer (1997 version) “Joy of Cooking” (JOC) cookbook when she found a reference to something called a “platar”. It was accompanied by a drawing of the device and the description; “a platar is a cast iron flat pan with seven round indentations each about 3 inches wide and 1/2 inch deep especially for making blini or other small pancakes”. A bell went off in her head. She immediately recognized the platar as the cast iron pan that has been floating around with our other cast iron griddles and frying pans for years. (Shown in the picture below.) 

We have had it for so long we are not sure how we acquired it and had no idea how it should be used. We vaguely thought it could be used to make biscuits but after some experimentation years ago we discovered that didn’t work. So it resided, taking up room, at the bottom of the stack of various sized cast iron frying pans in a drawer under the stove. She was absolutely delighted to finally find the purpose of the pan as well as the blini recipe on the next page of the cookbook. So this was our project one weekend.

Digression alert: At one time, we were into caviar and we made blini many times. We already had our platar at that time but obviously we did not know its purpose so we made the blini in a frying pan. By-the-way, we looked up (=Googled) the word “platar” and the only reference we could find was a listing in a forum where somebody who, like us, had read the section about platar in JOC asked what it was. The answers appear to suggest nobody knew. Although we could not find anything with the word “platar”, we did find a cast iron skillet that lookedexactly like our platar at Amazon.It was called “SIMLAY CO. Cast Iron Baking Pan”. The advertisement said it could be used to make many things; muffins, biscuits, eggs. Spoiler alert: We tried that years ago...somewhat less than successful. 

We did not have caviar the weekend we used the platar, but we did have "Ikura" salmon roe so we used that to top the blini. (We do not stock caviar but we do try to keep a supply of "Ikura' in the freezer).  The second picture shows the final (blini, sourcream, egg, ikura) dish with a garnish of chopped chives and marinated strawberries that we served that day for lunch. 

  

We had this with our usual second cup of coffee for the day; "macchiato". (The first cup was cappcino or more like cafe latte). 

I am sure there must be many interpretations of macchiato but our interpretaion is a single shot of espresso topped with 1 tsp. of frothed cream.

As usual my wife made the batter for the pancake and I cooked it. Since I have never used a platar, it was a learning experience. The blini came out better in the later batches. I ask my wife to provide the recipe.

Ingredients:
For Blini (makes about 21 blini)
1 1/2 cup milk
4 Tbs. (1/2 stick) butter
2 tsp. yeast
2/3 cup AP flour
2/3 cup buckwheat flour
2 Tbs. sugar
1 tsp. salt
3 large eggs, lightly beaten

For Blini (recipe X2) (mix in the 6 cup pyrex mixing cup so the batter can be poured rather than scooped into the cooking cups.) 
3 cup milk

8 Tbs. (1 stick) butter
4 tsp. yeast
1 1/3 cup AP flour
1 1/3 cup buckwheat flour
4 Tbs. sugar
2 tsp. salt
6 large eggs, lightly beaten

For topping (everything is to taste and depends on the number of pancakes being served. Also anything can be used. This is just what we came up with.)
sour cream (to taste)
2 eggs, scrambled
1 Tbs. Ikura (salmon eggs) or caviar
Chives finely chopped

Note: Use smallest ladle, Don’t make them too thick.  (Or conversely make them thick enough that they can be cut in half horizontally. That will shorten the cooking time).

Directions:
For the Blini: Melt the butter in the milk. Let it cool to about 105 to 115 degrees. Mix the dry ingredients (yeast through salt) in another bowl. Pour the cooled milk mixture over the dry ingredients mixing until just combined. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it rise in a warm place until doubled in volume (about 1 hour) (#1 in the 3rd group of pictures). Once it has risen either make the pancakes immediately or refridgerate covered for up to 24 hours. (We made the batter after dinner and refridgerated it over night). If refridgerated let it stand at room temperature for 20 minutes (#2). Then deflate the batter and whisk in the  eggs lightly beaten.

Now, I am providing the details of how I cooked blini in the platar. This is for our future reference because this requires some finesse. First, I took out the planar and washed it with hot water (no soap), dried it by heating it on the stove and coated each of the 7 wells with olive oil using a paper towel (#3). I preheated the pan on low flame for 5 minutes then used a small ladle (second smallest ice cream scoop) add the batter, half filling the wells (#4). I continued to cook until the surface of the pancake showed bubbles and looked dry (5-7 minutes). Then came the challenge of flipping them. According to my wife,  the directions in the JOC said flip the pancakes over using a skewer. But that proved entirely too simplistic. After some experimentation I came up with a method of loosening the blini by running the tip of a dinner knife around the perimeter of the well, then inserting the knife tip under the bottom of the blini to pry it loose. Then with the knife under the blini and a bamboo skewer inserted into the top I flipped it (#5). As I repeated the process I got better and could flip the pancake without damaging the side. But I noticed that the 6 wells surrounding the center well had uneven heat and only the outer half got browned (#5). So with the next batch, I released the blini before they were ready to flip and turned them180 degrees in the well then cooked them for a few more minutes before flipping them over. In the next batch, the first side was more evenly browned (#6).  In any case, when all was said and done, we had at least a few perfect blinis (#7= top and #8=bottom).

I topped one of the “perfect” blini (#1) in the 6th set of pictures, with sour cream (#2), scrambled eggs (#3), "Ikura" salmon roe and finely chopped chives harvested from our herb garden (#4). 

 

This is the height of decadence. The blini had a soft thick texture and a very pleasing robust rustic flavor from the combination of buckwheat flour and yeast. The sour cream, eggs and salmon caviar were an excellent combination with complementary creamy texture. The burst of saltiness from the ikura at the end of the bite was a perfect finale. This is how we will be making blini in the future. Next stop crumpets in the platar. 

Tarako from Korean grocery store Hmart 焼きたらこ

 Lightly grilled salted "tarako" たらこ cod roe is not really a new dish as I posted it many years ago,  but it is a very common dish in Izakaya and goes perfectly well with sake. I usually get tarako (frozen) from our Japanese grocery store, but this time I got it from Hmart, the Korean grocery store, through Instacart.  The groceries were delivered while I was not at home so my wife received them. During a subsequent phone call,  she mentioned that it was not a completely successful grocery run since the three types of fresh mushrooms and the mackerel we ordered were not available. The good news was that the "tarako" did arrive. She said something was wrong, however, because it was covered with a red goopy stuff and suggested that maybe the little egg sacks had somehow ruptured spilling their contents. (Not good!) So when I got back in the evening and inspected the tarako I found it was coated with a Korean hot sauce "gochujang". We were both relieved and had a good chuckle. Since we are not into very hot spicy food, I quickly rinsed off the hot sauce. I made "Tarako" pasta たらこスパゲッティwith it and it was just fine. I made the dish shown below from the last sac of tarako. I just cooked it in the toaster oven until the surface was cooked but the insides were still raw. I served it with a Dashimaki omelet だし巻き I had made.

This was a part of several appetizers I served that evening (second picture). From left to right; Eggplant in seasoned broth 茄子のお浸し、deviled egg from pickled eggs my wife made,  salmon in sweet vinegar 鮭の南蛮漬け. The bottom right are oven-baked potato chips which my wife is in the process of perfecting and which will be subject of another post. The dish on the bottom left is a dipping sauce my wife made to go with the potato chips.

In any case, we started the evening with these small appetizers.

One spoonful appetizers and more

These are appetizers I served one evening. Not particularly new but we had "uni" sea urchin from Maruhide 丸秀 a day before, so my one spoonful appetizers a.k.a baby food for adults got a topping of ikura with chopped perilla (for cauliflower purée) and uni with broccoli florets (for broccoli purée).

I also added three small appetizers  which I served in small lidded bowls we got from Nishiki market in Kyoto 京都錦市場. We had Dassai 45 獺祭４５with this.

This is salmon "Nanban" 鮭の南蛮漬け (fried salmon marinated in sweet vinegar with carrot and celery).

This is salmon Russian marinade 鮭のロシア漬け topped with vinegar cucumber slices.

For veggies, I served blanched sugar snap soaked in salt broth スナップ豌豆の塩びたし and skinned Campari tomato.

Uni from Maruhide (both regular and in salt water) is really good. My one spoonful appetizer definitely got "kicked up a notch" with the addition of uni.

One spoonful appetizers a.k.a baby food for adults 一口スプーンの前菜第二弾

This is another iteration of one spoonful appetizers. I am making more purées or what I refer to as “baby food for adults” to use as one gulp spoonfuls of food. In any case, the below are three such appetizers. From left to right: Kabocha potage カボチャのポタージュ, seasoned soft boiled egg 味卵 with ikura salmon roe イクラ and cauliflower puree with ikura.

I also strewed the plate with simmered kabocha カボチャの煮物 (left lower corner), braised cauliflower モンパルナスのカリフラワーand blanched sugar snap in salt broth スナップ豌豆の塩びたし.

The below was what I served for another evening. This time I made broccoli puree which I garnished with flowerets of blanched broccoli. The other two are the same cauliflower puree and Kabocha potage shown in the pictures above.

I made broccoli puree from the stem of broccoli, onion, and parsnip. It has very good and interesting flavors. When I ask my wife to taste it, she thought it had asparagus.

I made the broccoli puree without a recipe but the basic is very similar to any potage or puree.

Ingredients:
Broccoli stem, hard bottom removed and hard skin removed (I used stems of two broccoli heads), cut into small cubes.
One medium onion, finely diced
One parsnip (or maybe a potato), skinned, cut into small cubes.
1/2 cup of chicken broth or more depending on the consistency of the puree (I used Swanson's no fat reduced salt)
1 tsp unsalted butter and 2 tbs olive oil
Salt to taste
Two bay leaves (optional)

Directions:
Add the olive oil and butter to the pan on medium flame and sauté the onion until cooked (2-3 minutes).
Add the broccoli stem and parsnip and coat with butter/oil and add the chicken both to cover.

Add the bay leaves and simmer until soft (15-20 minutes)
Remove the bay leaves and puree using an immersion blender until smooth (add more chicken broth for desired consistency).
Season with salt

These appetizers are nice. The spoonful is just the right amount for a satisfying gulp. They provide a nice range of flavors although the consistency seems, well consistent. It is lovely and smooth but I can’t help but think of it as sophisticated “baby food for adults”. I’ll have to come up with something different.

A spoonful appetizer 一口スプーン前菜

My wife gave me some new plates and bowls for Christmas which required us to rearrange things to make a room for them. During these activities, we found spoons my wife got for me some time ago which were meant to serve a just one-swallow/bite appetizer.  Since they newly resurfaced, I promptly tried a one-swallow/bite appetizer using the spoon. The handles of the spoons are bent so that they can sit on the plate without a handle sticking over the edge. I served this with the last of New Year’s salmon kelp roll and Russian marinaded salmon.

This was just a whim-of-the moment dish. Since I had Cauliflower purée which I made a few days ago, I just put a small amount on the spoon and topped it with soy sauce  marinated “ikura” salmon roe and micro green perilla from our window sill herb garden. This combination worked well. We had this with cold sake and it went very well.

This was quite good. Although our initial cauliflower purée was made with cauliflower cooked in milk, recently I have been making in an abbreviated quick method.

Ingredients:
One small head of cauliflower, florets separated
1-2 tbs unsalted butter
1 cup warm milk

salt to taste

Directions:
Steam the cauliflower using a basket steamer for 10-15 minutes until very soft.
Place the cauliflower in a plastic container for immersion blender

Add 2/3 of the milk and blend using an immersion blender in high-speed
Add more milk for the nice silky consistency if needed.
Add the butter in thick pats
Season with salt and blend until very smooth and silky

This is wonderful way to prepare cauliflower. This purée can be used in many different ways. The smooth texture of the cauliflower purée was a great contrast to the burst of saltiness from the ikura.