Tsukune with Lotus Root and Perilla 蓮根大葉つくね

This is a hybrid of “Renkon Tuskune”  蓮根つくね and “Tsukune with perilla” つくねの大葉焼き. Since our perilla is growing profusely in our herb garden, we are using perilla leaves whenever we can.  This is also the last segment of fresh lotus root we got from Weee asian grocery delivery service. We found that we could make the lotus root last longer by separating the fresh lotus root into its individual segments, wrapping the segments in paper towel and vacuum packing them. With this preparation they last for a long time under refrigeration (at least 1 mouth or more). Beside using a slice of the lotus root as a base for the Tuskune, I also included chopped up lotus root in the tsukune itself to give it nice crunch without using chicken cartilage. The perilla leaves add an additional unique flavor.

I served this with “kinpira” braised lotus root 金平蓮根 I made to finish up the last of the renkon. I also served simmered “kabocha”  かぼちゃの煮物 Japanese pumpkin.

Ingredients:
8 slices of lotus root, skin peeled and sliced into (4-5mm) thick plus two or three slices chopped up (to mix into the tuskune itself)
8 perilla leaves (if too large cut in half to make 8 pieces)
4 oz (114 gram) of ground chicken (this was low-fat breast meat ground chicken)
1/2 tsp ground ginger root
1/2 tsp ground garlic
1 tsp mayonnaise (optional, to compensate low-fat ground meat)
1 tsp miso
1 tbs “katakuri-ko” potato starch
1 tbs vegetable or olive oil

Directions:
In a bowl, mix the chicken, ginger, garlic, mayonnaise, miso and chopped up lotus root. Mix well by hand until the mixture is elastic and binding together (if too loose, you could add potato starch, if too stiff, you could add a beaten egg)
Coat the slices of lotus root with the potato starch thinly (to improve the adhesion of the meat mixture)
Place 1/8 of the chicken mixture onto the lotus root on the cutting board and press lightly so that the mixture will go into the holes of the lotus root.
Place the perilla leaf on and press lightly so that it adheres to the meat mixture (see below)
Add the oil to a non-stick frying pan on medium heat, and start cooking the lotus root side down first (see below) and cook a few minutes or until the lotus root browns a bit
Gently turn it over and turn down the heat to low and cook a few more minutes with the lid on for the last 2 minutes to make sure the meat mixture is cooked through.
Optionally you could add a mixture of mirin and soy sauce at the end but I did not.

Drain excess oil on a paper towel.

This tsukune is seasoned enough for us but you could add “Yakitori sauce (equal mixture  of mirin and soy sauce) ” as mentioned before. This re-heats nicely in a toaster oven. It is a nice contrast in textures and taste. The chicken portion is almost fluffy in texture which is a nice contrast to the crunch of the renkon on the bottom layer and distributed through out the meat. The perilla adds a nice fresh minty spiciness.

Eggplant Prosciutto and Ham Rolls 茄子の生ハム巻き

I was trying to come up some new eggplant recipes since we still had two large eggplants we got from Weee. I saw two recipes on-line using thinly sliced pork or prosciutto wrapped around a baton shaped piece of eggplant. Actually, these types of roll-ups are very popular in Japan. The most common ones use vegetables such as scallion or asparagus in the center rolled up in various kinds of thinly slices meat. Since we had slices of prosciutto and honey-baked ham, these two recipes inspired me to make roll-ups using batons of eggplant with one kind wrapped in prosciutto and the other with ham. I did not add any sauce as suggested in one of the recipes. This is a good snack-y dish. Salted “umeboshi” plum paste gave a nice salty sour flavor that went well with the eggplant. We definitely liked the prosciutto one best.

Ingredients (made 12 roll-ups):
For salted plum sauce (“bainiku” 梅肉)
Two “umeboshi” 梅干し salted plums, meat removed from the stone, chopped.
1/2 tsp mirin

One asian/Japanese eggplant (long slender one which is not quite a Japanese eggplant), quartered length-wise, then cut across about 2 inch long or the width of the ham and prosciutto.
10 perilla “aojiso” 青紫蘇 leaves
12 slices total of prosciutto and ham.
1 tbs potato starch or “katakuriko”片栗粉
2-3 tbs light olive oil or vegetable oil

Directions:
Place the meat of the salted plum in a Japanese “suribachi” mortar. Add the mirin and grind into a smooth paste (#1)
Spread out a slice of the prosciutto or ham on a cutting board, place the perilla leaf on the ham, smear the plum sauce, place a baton of the eggplant and roll to make 12 roll-ups (#2 and #3).
Thinly coat the surface with potato starch
Seam-side down, fry in a non-stick frying pan with the olive oil in medium heat, turning occasionally to brown all sides (#4). Once all sides are brown, turn the heat down put the lid on, to complete cooking of the eggplant (about 5 more minutes).
Serve hot or re-heated in the toaster oven before serving.

As mentioned before, the ones made with prosciutto were much better largely because the ham didn’t have any flavor. The outside was crispy with some saltiness. The eggplant was creamy, soft and permeated with the major flavors that came from the salted plum paste and the perilla leaves. Very good combination of the textures and flavors. Perfect snack for either sake or wine.

Eggplant Stir-fry with Perilla and Ginger 大葉ナス

Again we got some Japanese groceries delivered from Weee which included some Asian eggplants. Since the delivery included quite a good number of eggplants, I had to come up with a number of different dishes to use them before they go bad. I made this dish which is new to me. I was inspired by looking at a YouTube episode. This was a perfect dish since in addition to eggplant, it uses green perilla which is growing quite well in our herb garden. As usual I treated the recipe as “advisory” and made some modifications. This is slightly sweet due to the oyster sauce and added sugar but it is also somewhat spicy from the ginger. It has a nice perilla taste as well. I think this is good served warm or cold. It’s also another item that goes well with cold sake.

Ingredients:
One asian eggplant (this was a slender long one, which is equivalent to two small Japanese eggplants), cut into quarters lengthwise and then cut on the bias into bite sized pieces.
10 green perilla leaves, finely chopped (left in the picture below).
1 tbs julienne of ginger (center in the picture below).
2 tbs oil (I used light olive oil with a splash of dark sesame oil) (divided 1 tbs each).
1 tbs soy sauce
1 tbs oyster sauce
1 tsp ponzu
1 tbs chicken broth (the original recipe calls for granulated chicken broth or 鶏がらスープの素 which is freeze dried granules of chicken and vegetable broth. This is an ingredient that often appears in Japanese recipes)
2 tsp salt and 1 tbs potato starch (for preparation of the eggplant)

Directions:
Salt the eggplant pieces, mix well and and let it stand for 5 minutes or more (until some moisture comes out)
Wash with cold water to remove excess salt, ring out moisture from the eggplant (left in the picture below), lightly coat with the potato starch

Add the oil to the frying pan on medium flame. When the oil is hot add the eggplant pieces turning until both sides are cooked and browned (3-4 minutes), set it aside (picture below)

Add the remaining oil to the pan on low flame add the ginger and sauté for one minute or until fragrant.
Add the perilla and sauté for one more minute. Add the soy sauce, oyster sauce, chicken broth and mix.
Add back the eggplant and stir and the sauce slightly reduced (1-2 minutes).

This is another flavorful rendition of “eggplant”. I was very careful not to overcook it and have the eggplant dissolve as a result the skin had a slight crunch while the white interior was soft and creamy. It had a surprising bite of hot spiciness which took us a little while to figure out was coming from the ginger. But it added another positive note to the dish.

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.

Cabbage and perilla in brine キャベツの青じそ漬け

These were five small appetizers we had one evening. Among these five appetizers, one is new and another is sort of new (a variation).

From the left, three kinds of protein. In the picture below which is the close up of the individual dishes, the left is smoked mackerel with miso sauce (since it is difficult now to get fresh mackerel, we got a package of smoked mackerel). My wife suggested serving it with the miso sauce I use to simmer the fresh mackerel サバの燻製味噌ソース. Unfortunately, this batch of the smoked mackerel was a bit too salty and the addition of the miso sauce did not improved the situation by adding more saltiness. The center is vegetables and fried salmon in sweet vinegar 酒の南蛮漬け and the right is chicken dressed in sesame dressing 酒蒸し鶏胸肉の胡麻和え.

Below, from  left to right is the previously mentioned chicken with sesame dressing, the center is a new small dish which is cabbage and perilla in brine キャベツの青じそ漬け.  There are many variations on this theme but I used a recipe from the on-line version of the Japanese newspaper "Asahi shinbun" 朝日新聞. (The recipe follows below the picture). The right is my usual potato saladポテトサラダ. 

Ingredients for cabbage dish

150 grams cabbage, cut into 1 x 3-4 cm strips
4-5 Green perilla leaves, cut into 1cm square

For Brine (mix the below and let it cool to room temperature)
1/2 cup hot water
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp rice vinegar

Directions
In a Ziploc bag, add the cabbage and green perilla, pour in the brine, remove the air as much as you can and seal. Sandwich the bag between two plates and put the weight and let it stand for 30 minutes until more water comes out and the cabbage becomes soft. It will keep several days in the refrigerator.

The brine was rather gentle and the cabbage tasted fresh and had a nice crunch. eating it with the perilla pieces really made it. This is a nice refreshing dish.