Otoshi 3 kinds お通し三種類

These are another example of my otoshi appetizer threesome. Again these were made quickly from mostly leftovers.



The first  one is sort of Italian style octopus, a leftover part toward the tip of the tentacles after using thick portion for sashimi; Cucumber cut into small cubes, black and green olives, dressed in olive oil seasoned with smoked paprika.



The second one is my usual braised burdock root or "Kinpira gobo" 金平牛蒡, which I made the prior weekend.



The last one is leftover cooked salmon (broken into small pieces) dressed in mayo (mixed with Japanese one flavor pepper flakes 一味唐辛子 and light colored soy sauce 薄口醤油 garnished with ikura salmon roe.



Except for the Ikura, all these appetizers will go with either sake or wine. Instead of just one appetizer, having three is more enjoyable.

G Sake on the rocks G 酒 オンザロック

When we were at Izakaya Kurakura 蔵倉 in Kyoto recently, we had "Icebreaker" summer sake on the rocks which gave us the idea to taste G sake on the rocks. We posted G sake Joy and G sake Fifty in 2013. While they were good, we were not wild about these sakes (we liked the original G sake) and thought they were a bit too assertive/savory in taste with cloying sweetness (this tendency was more pronounced in "Fifty"). As a result several bottles of G sake have stayed in the refrigerator untouched. Since they were a rather assertive undiluted genshu with higher alcohol content (18% alcohol), we thought they may taste better on the rocks like Icebreaker sake.

We first tried G sake (2013 version) on the rocks.



The glass came from Kitaichi glass 北市グラス in Otaru 小樽. While we were in Japan, we noticed some of the Japanese tumblers were made of incredibly thin glass. We learned that since incandescent light bulbs are becoming a thing of the past in Japan, the same technology used to make light bulbs is being used to make very thin-walled glass tumblers. The ones we bought have little dimples on the sides making them easier to grasp. We tasted G sake "Joy" on the rocks in these tumblers accompanied with deep fried small sweet fish or "ayu".



A few days later, we tried G sake "Fifty" (2013 version) on the rocks. The major difference between "Joy" and "Fifty" is the degree to which the rice has been polished; 40 and 50% (of outer kernel removed), respectively.



This time we had octopus sashimi and raw ocutopus in wasabi yuzu dressing (in the square container,  from a frozen package). I also served matchsticks of nagaimo in vinegar dressing garnished with dried "aonori".



We liked G sake "Joy" on the rocks. The cloying sweetness was much less and the slight dilution and icy temperature made the G sake taste crisp and better.  G sake "Fifty" got much better than tasting it straight but the cloying sweetness broke through even on the rocks. Certainly, we can drink it much more easily on the rocks than straight. In conclusion, it is a good idea to have G sake on the rocks in hot summer. The assertive tastes of G sakes are actually perfect for on the rocks. We much prefer G sake "joy" over "fifty". We have not tried the most recent brews, however.

Octopus 2 ways たこのお通し２種類

Again these two appetizers using boiled octopus leg are not new. But these were what we had one evening.

The first one is sort of octopus carpaccio (Carpaccio de pulpo). I posted a similar item in the past. I first made zigzag lines of good fruity olive oil on the plate and then criss-crossed with lines of syrupy aged balsamic vinegar. I scattered Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper.  Since I had a leftover fennel bulb which was used for making chicken paillard, I first thinly sliced fennel using a Japanese mandolin Benriner and placed them as a base. I thinly sliced  boiled octopus leg and placed in one layer on the  top. I added a few slices of fennel, thin slices of cucumber and scattered oil cured back olives (after removing the stone). I finished with lines of olive oil and balsamic vinegar, Kosher salt and black pepper. Fennel added anis-like  flavor and oil cured olive gave a burst of saltiness. This combination was quite good.



Using the tips of the octopus leg, I also made a small Japanese style salad with karashi-su-miso 芥子酢味噌 dressing. I just cut the tips into small bite size chunks. I sliced cucumber, salted it and squeezed out the moisture. I then took salt preserved (not dry) Wakame sea weed, washed it to remove the salt and soaked in water for a few minutes then cut into small pieces. The dressing is a mixture of white (sweet "Saikyo" 西京味噌) miso, rice vinegar, Japanese mustard and sugar.



Because of the acidity in the dishes, sake was the best choice although the first Carpaccio dish could go with wine. These were good starters with cold sake.

Kimchi Poke キムチポケ

This is my desperate attempt at making something from the frozen block of yellowfin tuna I keep in the freezer for when I need an emergency sashimi/sushi fix. Recently the weather has been extremely cold and snowy so we were not able to get anything good for our usual celebration of the weekend. We had a little bit of salmon roe and boiled octopus leg. I thawed the block of yellowfin tuna to round out the plate. I made half into "zuke" and half into this starter. For a change I served the tuna as is (two slices) and also as poke with store bought kimchi.



Again, breaking our routine, we went for hot sake which was just more comforting in this frigid weather. We were getting low on Gekkeikan Black and Gold since we have been consuming hot sake much more often than before this winter.

One of the reasons I made this dish using kimchi is that I happened to learn that my wife has never eaten kimchi. Although kimchi is the national dish of Korea, it is very popular in Japan as well. My mother used to make a Japanese-style; much milder kimchi (Japanese used to call it Korean pickles or chousen-zuke  朝鮮ずけ. Now it is simply called kimchi). I  bought commercial kimchi in a jar for my wife to taste. I chose "mild" since it is easy to make it hot by adding a hot sauce but it is not easy to make it mild. Since it is still fermenting, the lid of the jar was bulging (My wife immediately concluded the contents must have gone bad. She had been drilled since childhood that a bulging can is a dangerous can and in the words of her mother “When in doubt throw it out”). Then she saw the disclaimer on the lid to the effect that if it was bulging that was OK. That is how it is with foods like kimchi and (even worse) Surströmming,...since in a sense the food inside is still rotting/fermenting. (For the record, I have never come near this Swedish delicacy, let alone tasted it. I am more than willing to defer to the description by others concerning the smell and taste of this product).

Obviously this is not based on a recipe. I diced the tuna into small cubes.  I chopped up the kimchi and mixed it in. I also added finely chopped scallion and seasoned it with sesame oil and soy sauce.

Kimchi is sour, garlicky and spicy (this one was mild) which added some to this otherwise poor tuna. This is nothing I can boast about but for the purpose of  consuming warm sake, it did its job.

Tako Yaki たこ焼き

Growing up in Sapporo 札幌, Hokkaido, takoyaki たこ焼き was not an item I encountered often. So-called "Konamon" こなもん food cultures are an Oosaka 大阪 (Kansai 関西) tradition which may include takoyaki,  okonomiyaki お好み焼き as well as noodles (especially udon). "Kona" 粉 means flour and anything made from flour may qualify as "konamon" but the exact definition escapes me.

One of the  reasons I made takoyaki was because this gave me another post but also because of my sister-in-law gave me an electric ebelskiver cooker as a Christmas present. After several of the cookers were delivered by Federal Express Ground to random locations other than our house it finally arrived last week—only 2 months late for the Christmas holiday. When I saw the cooker all I could think was Takoyaki. The size of the cooking wells and resulting product were larger than traditional Takoyaki but my wife said, “just call it American style takoyaki.

I made a takoyaki sauce and garnished with bonito flake powder and "aonori" 青海苔. For the first try, this was good with a crunchy outside and molten soft inside centered with a piece of boiled octopus leg.

 

Since this is not a type of food I grew up with, I looked for an authentic recipe for takoyaki. After looking through various recipes, I settled for the recipe which was written in Osaka dialect (a true sign of its authenticity).

Ingredients:

Takoyaki sauce:  A mixture of Lee and Perrin worcestershire sauce, ketchup, and honey. The ratio of the Worcestershire sauce and ketchup is about 1:2 and honey to your liking of sweetness. The authentic sauce is supposedly rather sweet. Among the pre-made commercial sauce, Otafuku brand takoyaki sauce おたふくたこ焼きソース is most popular. (left, upper).
Boiled octopus leg: I just cut into 1/2 inch or 1cm chunks (I made 12) (right lower).
Scallion: Finely chopped about 4 stalks (left lower) (1 tsp per ball).
Tenkasu*:  See picture and write up below. (1/2 to 1 tsp per ball).

In terms of the garnish,  I prepared dried "aonori" (upper right) and dried bonito powder (middle right, I made bonito powder by grinding the bonito flakes in a Japanese mortar and pestol (suribachi すり鉢) but this is not necessary (use as is).

I did not use additional items such as red pickled ginger (紅生姜) or small dried shrimp (桜エビ). According to this recipe, adding shredded cabbage is totally not authentic. If used, it should be called "Okonomiyaki" ball rather than takoyaki.



*Tenkasu: One more ingredient I needed was "tenkasu" 天かす or "agedama" 揚げ玉 a by-product of making tempura. They are the small fried tempura bits of batter that come off the main tempura while it is being cooked. They are quickly removed from the oil before they burn. Besides being used in making takoyaki and okonomi-yaki, they can be used as a topping for noodles (such as in "Tanuki" udon or soba), miso soup and other dishes.
Interestingly, in Hokkaido they are more commonly called "agedama" or "fried balls".  This is a term I prefer to Tenkatsu which literally means "wastage or scum" of tempura and does not sound particularly appetizing to me. They used to be discarded or given away free at tempura or soba restaurants but more recently, packaged commercial products can be had (some even flavored by ground up dried shrimp). I could have made this myself but for takoyaki, I bought pre-made one, as seen on the left, at my Japanese grocery store.

The advert on the package boasts of supposed health aspects of this otherwise unhealthy product. The package indicated it was healthy because it was fried in Canola oil and 0% cholesterol (same in any other vegetable oil). Maybe this is better than if they were fried in tallow but the distinction seems slim to me. I see similar amusing claims on potato chip packages touting how healthy they are. In any case, surprisingly they were not oily and had no smell or taste of oxidized oil but, by the same token, they had no flavor whatsoever, only texture. We were not sure this added anything special to our takoyaki (I added about 1 tsp per ball).

Batter: The batter is most important. I like this recipe since it was proportional based on the numbers of eggs used. The important things seem to be; 1. Use a good quality cake flour,  2. Liquid and flour ratio is 1:4 to 1:4.5 (some recipes call for 1:5 ratio), 3. Use of powdered skim milk and baking powder (They are recent additions and improve the quality of takoyaki according to this author. He referred to these additions as "progress").  I really liked this approach so I translated his chart below.

Numbers of takoyaki	Cake flour	Powdered milk	Baking powder	Sugar	Salt	Soy sauce	Dashi broth	Eggs
20 (12*)	70g	1 tbs	1/2 tsp	1 tsp	1/4 tsp	1 tsp	300cc	１
40	140g	2tbs	1 tsp	2 tsp	1/2 tsp	2 tsp	600cc	2
60	210g	3tbs	1.5 tsp	3tsp	3/4tsp	3 tsp	900cc	3

*12 using my ebleskiver maker.

I made the smallest amount (i.e. using one egg). This amount should make 20 takoyaki but with my American style takoyaki/ebleskiver cooker, I could make only 12 since the diameter of the wells are 5.5cm as opposed to either 3.5 or 4.2 cm of authentic takoyaki grills. I think the size difference is not a problem, at least for us. I used about 10cc of 1% milk since I did not have powdered skim milk and reduced the dashi by that amount. The dashi was made with kelp and bonito flakes as usual. I did not sift the flour (which is recommended) but added the cold liquid into the dry ingredients gradually as I whisked. It made a rather thin batter. I let it refrigerate for several hours before using.

Assembly: This is where the fun starts. I preheated my ebleskiver maker on "High" setting for several minutes. Using vegetable oil and paper towel, I oiled the wells and the top surface (this has Teflon coating). I poured the batter (after mixing it again) to 90% of the well (se below)



After few minutes the edges started bubbling and I added the octopus leg (below).



I then added the scallion (about 1 tsp) and the tenkatsu (1 tsp) and topped it off with more batter (see below).



Using the bamboo skewer and the special sticks came with the ebleskiver maker,  I tested if the bottom was set and started turning them over (below).



I turned them over few more times to make all the surface equally brown (see below).



The center should be still molten (as I was told) so I declared these  done.



I brushed a small amount of my takoyaki sauce (mine is not as sweet as real Osaka style but I thought it was good. My wife said the sauce made the dish.) I then sprinkled on a pinch of the bonito powder and aonori powder (the first picture).

The center was very hot and molten. My wife thought that, instead of octopus leg, we could use shrimp (which I agree but then it will not be called takoyaki—maybe ebiyaki?). Another natural variation would be the addition of cheeses. Since I made "authentic" takoyaki, I may experiment with more variations (of course, I may consider making ebleskiver as well). We made total of 12 (9 in the first batch and three more). Between two of us, we finished all 12 in no time.

Carpaccio of octopus タコのカルパチオ

Having bought a 2 lb whole boiled and frozen octopus (which is a small octopus) from Fish-For-Sushi in preparation for the New Year,  I had to make some effort to finish it before it went bad. We had dinner guests a few days before new year. Although they were not known to enjoy an octopus, I decided to take a chance and serve Carpaccio of octopus.




When I made salmon gravlax,  I bought navel oranges which turned out to be very sweet and juicy—the best oranges we have had for some time. So I decided to use the orange fruit as well as a bit of it's juice.

Ingredients (for 4 servings):
Sweet onion: one medium, thinly sliced in rings using a Japanese Mandoline (Benriner)
Boiled octopus legs: 2 thinly sliced on bias.
Navel orange: one large, fruit separated from membrane and cut into small chunks
Watercress: remove thick stalks

Olive oil: Good fruity extra-virgin olive oil
Balsamic vinegar: Aged sweet syrupy one
Salt and pepper (I used smoked sea salt).

In a small serving dish, I freshly cracked some smoked sea salt. Then, I drizzled on lines of olive oil. I repeated the process this time with balsamic vinegar which I drizzled in lines perpendicular to the ones I made with the olive oil to form an olive oil, balsamic vinegar grid on the plate. I then scattered thinly sliced onion. I placed the slices of the octopus to cover the entire center portion of the plate. I added the orange chunks, more slices of onion, and then the watercress. I drizzled lines of olive oil and balsamic vinegar on the top, and sprinkled on the juice of the orange, salt and pepper.

This was a great hit. Our guests had never had octopus before. They guessed that the octopus was a “protein” but did not know what it was. We had this with champagne.

Octopus salad 蛸のもろ味味噌サラダ

The last time I went to the Japanese grocery store, I could not resist buying a leg of boiled octopus. We had a thick portion of leg thinly sliced and we enjoyed it dressed in mustard miso and vinegar dressing 芥子酢味噌.  I cut the remaining portion into small chunks or "Butsu-giri" ぶつ切りand made this sort-of Japanese-Italian salad.  The dressing was made of "moromi miso" 諸味味噌, yuzu juice and extra virgin olive oil (EVOO). We had this with a red wine and it went Ok.



I sprinkled on Japanese one flavor red pepper flakes.



Ingredients:
Boiled octopus leg, cut into small chunks (amount arbitrary).
Japanese cucumber , one cut into small cubes (cut into 4 long pieces along the length and then cut across).
Celery, two stalks, veins removed and cut into small cubes.
Daikon, one 1/3 inch slice, peeled and cut into small cubes (I think Jicama will also work)

Dressing:
Moromi miso, about 1 tbs
Yuzu juice, about 1 tsp (I used one from the bottle)
EVOO, about 1 tsp

I just dressed the above ingredients in the dressing. After tasting I added a bit more moroni miso. I placed the salad on the water cress and sprinkled Japanese on one flavor red pepper flakes 一味唐辛子.

The combination of moromi flavor with cucumber and celery works well. The addition of EVOO adds an interesting "Italian flavor". This is an interesting small salad to start the evening. This probably would go better with sake or beer.