Chicken livers simmered in red wine 鶏レバーの赤ワイン煮

Although chicken livers may not be a very healthy food, both my wife and I like them. So sometimes we buy a small plastic tub full of chicken livers when it is available at the local grocery store. I was thinking of making a re-match of country pate with pork and chicken liver but when I examined the livers, they were pretty good quality without any broken pieces. I changed my mind and decided to make "Yakitori" style with my tare sauce 鶏レバーの焼き鳥. I made this dish from the livers that remained after I made the yakitori. It looks very dark almost black and reminded us of whole truffles, but the inside was still the color of liver. I added freshly ground black pepper just before serving.

The white specks on the surface is ground pepper.

Ingredients:
230 grams (0.5 lb) fresh chicken livers, cleaned, soaked in cold water, cut into bite size.
130 ml red wine (I used Tempranillo since I happened have an already open bottle)
1 tbs Mirin
1 tbs Soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp ginger, finely julienned

Directions:
In a sauce pan, add all simmering liquid ingredients and let it come to a simmer.
In a large amount of boiling water, add the livers and wait until the water comes to a boil again. Remove the livers and place them in the simmering liquid (see below).

Cook/reduce the liquid to a small amount 30 minutes or more (see below).

I did not add freshly ground black pepper while cooking but added it just before serving. I served this dish cold next day with a glass of red wine. This liver had very pleasing dense texture; almost pate-like with some sweetness and nice red wine/tannin flavors. It went perfectly well with a good sturdy red wine. We both really liked this dish.

Pacific saury simmered with picked "umeboshi" plums 秋刀魚の梅煮

My wife pointed out that a package of frozen Pacific saury or ”Sanma" 秋刀魚 was in the freezer and had been there for some time. I must have bought it last autumn and it certainly required my immediate attention.   I have posted quite a few sanma dishes including classic "shio-yaki", salted and then grilled 塩焼き, "kaba-yaki" 蒲焼, "fry" 秋刀魚のフライ, and "fried rolls" 秋刀魚の巻き揚げ. I thought I had not posted sanma cooked with "umeboshi" 梅干し pickled plum or 秋刀魚の梅煮 but, when I searched my blog, I apparently already posted it some time ago. It was 7 years ago and this time, I cooked it a bit differently, which is my excuse for posting this dish again. This was a weekend and the weather was glorious and the mosquitoes were on vacation somewhere else so we enjoyed this dish outside on the deck with cold sake.

For greens, I added blanched and trimmed green beans. I also included the "umeboshi" plum which was used in the cooking liquid.

This fish is known for its numerous fine bones. Since I cooked this bone in, it took some chopstick dexterity to remove the bone before eating. The tail portion was easy because the meat had contracted exposing the bone, but the belly potion was more difficult. I demonstrated my chopstick prowess but my wife took a direct hands-on (literally) approach. This was OK with me. I would rather have her remove all the bones even if she has to use her fingers rather than have me remove a bone she missed from her throat using a needle nose pliers (This actually happened many years ago). If the removal of fish bones with fingers lacks finesse, it is completely superseded by the needle nose pliers technique.

Ingredients:
Pacific saury "sanma", three, thawed (#2)
Umeboshi pickled plums, 4, (#1, these are last batch my mother made and sent to us several years ago)
Ginger, several slices
Sake 180ml
Water, enough to cover the fish (90-180ml)
Sugar 1tsp
Soy sauce, 1 tbs
Mirin, 1 tbs

Directions:
Press the umeboshi to separate the stones and the meat. Then tear the meat into a few chunks
Wash and clean the surface of the sanma to make sure no scales remain (scales fall off easily and usually no scales remain)
Cut the head off behind the front fins, remove the dorsal and ventral fins, and cut into three pieces.
Squeeze out the innards and wash it with a running cold water.
Place the fish in a colander and pour hot water over it turning once (this will remove some fishiness and keep the skin from breaking easily during the cooking) (#3).
Put the water, sake, pickled plum, sugar  and slices of ginger in a sauce pan on medium-high flame (#4). If needed add more water so that the fish is covered.
Once it starts boiling, turn down the heat and put an "otsohis-buta" on top (#5), I used the pink silicon one.  One can use a parchment paper or aluminum foil, instead.
After 5-7 minutes, I removed the otoshibuta and added the soy sauce and mirin and put back the otoshibuta and a lid and cooked it for 20 minutes.
I let it cool down in the cooking liquid.

The pickled plums added a nice salty and slightly sour tastes and the reaming plum meat add refreshing note. We really like this dish. My wife said next time she would remove the bone with her fingers in the kitchen ahead of time rather than at the dinner table.

Anchovy balls in soup イワシのつみれ汁

Anchovies or "Iwashi" イワシ are generally considered "low-class" fish. In the West, it is almost exclusively used to make cans of salted and oil packed filets or paste in a tube. It is often used in Italian food such as pizza, or in a sauce or garnish but many people do not like it. In Japan, it is also considered a "low-class" fish but it is much better appreciated and eaten in many different ways. One of the problems with these blue skin fish is that they spoil very quickly. When I was in Japan, small blue skinned fish like pacific saury or "sanma" 秋刀魚 or anchovies or "iwashi" イワシ was never eaten as sashimi.  Recent improvement in quick delivery logistics, however, made it possible to consume these blue skin fish as sashimi. We occasionally see "fresh" (meaning not in a can) whole anchovies in the near-by Whole  foods market. Unfortunately, for some reason, they look all beaten up; like they just came out of a bar brawl. For this reason I hesitate to buy them. While I was checking our freezer, I came across frozen filets of fresh anchovies that I bought in our Japanese grocery store.  I completely forgot I had them and decide to make two dishes from them.

This is the first dish. It is a fish meat ball called "iwashi-no-tsumire*" イワシのつみれ. I added the fish meat balls to seasoned broth with tofu, shiitake mushrooms, green beans, and garnished with the white part of scallion which makes this dish "Iwashi-no-tusmire-jiru" イワシのつみれ汁. Since this was in the evening and my wife does not like to eat a lot of soup in the evening, I added only a small amount of the broth.

Here is the close up. The tsumire  turned out to be very soft and friable.  The tofu is silken tofu from "Otokomae".

*Digression  Alert: I am sure nobody cares about the difference between "tsukune" つくね and "tsumire" つみれ but to make this blog educational, I will try to explain the subtle difference between these two Japanese culinary parlances. Both are balls made of minced fish or animal meat and cooked, either boiled or grilled. "Tsukune" is most often used to describe chicken meat balls and "tsumire" for fish meat balls but that is not the true difference between these two words. "Tsukune-ru" 捏ねる is a verb which means to "mix" or "knead" and if you are forming balls by rolling, it is called "tsukune". "Tsumu" 摘む is a verb which means to "pick" or "pluck" and 'Tumi-ireru" 摘入れる is a combined verb (tsumu+ ireru, "ireru" meaning "to place"). So tsumuireru means  "to pluck something (between your fingers) and put it (into cooking liquid). So, for authentic "tsumire", you pick up a small portion of chopped meat with your fingers and then place it in cooking liquid. In my case, I just used two small spoons to form balls, so this is "quenelle" rather than "tsumire". This is way more than anybody cares to know, but even I am amazed at my ability to pontificate on such meaningless topics.

Ingredients:
Frozen anchovy filets, 3, thawed (see below, I used half for this dish)
Miso, 1 tsp
Sake, 4 tbs+1tsp
Ginger, grated, 1/2 tsp
Potato starch, 1/2 tsp
Alternatively, you could use salt (1/2 tsp) and egg white (one egg) which make more "pure" iwashi flavored tsumire. In my case, I was more afraid of a strong"fishy" smell and flavor and used miso and ginger.

For the seasoned broth:
Japanese kelp and bonito broth (I made it  from a dashi pack), 200ml
Mirin and light colored soy sauce to taste (about 1 tbs each)

Directions:
Marinate the filets in sake for 30 minutes to overnight in the refrigerator (optional, especially if using fresh anchovies).
Using a chef's knife, mince it (the finer you mince the fish the firmer the resulting tsumire). You could remove the skin to make it less strong but I included it).
I mixed the miso with sake and worked it into the minced fish meat.
I then added the potato starch (you can add more to make the final products firmer).

Using two spoons, I made a small "quenelle" and dropped into gently simmering seasoned broth and cooked it for 5 minutes.
I kept this in the refrigerator after it cooled to the room temperature and the next day, heated it up with other items seen in the first picture or served it immediately.

This was a very slightly fishy in smell but not in taste. It had a very soft and delicate texture. The texture of the fish went very well with the texture of the soft tofu. Probably I could have minced the fish more finely and/or added more starch. In any case, it was a nice and delicate dish and we enjoyed it with cold sake on a recent holiday.

Chicken wings simmered with prunes 鳥手羽のプルーン煮

We like chicken wings. We have posted quite a number of different ways to cook and enjoy chicken wings. Our most common way is to dredge the wings with flour and curry powder then bake at a high temperature in the toaster oven .  I wanted to cook them a different way and decided to try this recipe which is chicken wings simmered with prunes. The original recipe calls for a pressure cooker. I did not use a pressure cooker. Instead I cooked them longer in a regular pot. I also omitted the sugar.

I served them with blanched broccoli.

Ingredients:
Chicken wings, 8, flats and drumetts separated
Prunes, 8
Soy sauce 2 tbs
Mirin 1 tbs
Sake 1 tbs
Japanese dried red pepper flakes (optional)

Directions:
Just put everything in the pot in low flame. Although the original recipe called for water to cover, I did not add any water. I covered it with a silicon "otoshi-buta" 落し蓋 and put on the lid. I cooked it for close to 1 hour. I turned the chicken pieces once.

The prunes almost melted and added flavor and sweetness to the sauce. Even omitting the sugar (I substituted with mirin), this was plenty sweet. The meat did not get as tender as I expected. Other simmered chicken wing dishes made the meat much more tender. This is not bad but we prefer other chicken wing dishes.

Japanese pork pot roast 煮豚

Although I have posted Japanese (Chinese) pork pot roast previously, this one turned out particularly well. One major reason is the cut of pork. Generally pork roasts that are available in the grocery store are loins which would become dry if cooked by this method; they are better grilled on the Weber. I occasionally can get shoulder or butt. This cut has more layers of fat between the meat. Some of these are bone-in, and not suited for pot roast so we frequently barbecue these cuts in our Weber grill. Sometimes, however, the fat is too much and I end up having to remove large sections of it from the meat after the roast is cooked. More recently different types of pork roast started appearing in our grocery store. This roast was sold as "pork roast" with no specific cut identified. I am guessing this is either shoulder or butt. It was boneless so I made it into a pot roast. It came out very succulent and good. Since I made this in the morning, I decided to serve it as a lunch. I served it with French-cut green beans, green asparagus, tomatoes and my potato salad.

With this method of cooking the layers of fat between the meat are mostly rendered out but the pieces are still very moist and tender.

I also added a skinned and sliced Campari tomato as well as blanched broccoli. I dressed the veggies with sesame mayonnaise (sesame paste, mayo and soy sauce).

The recipe for the pork is the same one I used before.

Ingredients:
Pork roast, trussed (it came trussed in a plastic net but I removed and re-trussed it with a butcher's twine).
Marinade: (soy sauce, mirin and sake in 2:1:1 ratio) enough to cover 1/3 of the pork roast.
Star anise (2), whole black pepper corns (6-8), garlic, peeled and crushed (3-4), ginger sliced (3-4 sliced), scallion, bruised using the back of the knife (2-3 stalks).

Directions:
1. Place the roast in the pot with the marinade and spices.  The roast should snugly fit in the pot.
2. Put on the lid and let it marinate at room temperature, turning every 10-20 minutes for 1-2 hours.
3. Add water so that a bit more than half of the roast is submerged.
4. Place the pot on medium flame and cover loosely with the aluminum foil and put on the lid.
5. When the simmering liquid starts boiling, turn down the flame to simmer and cook for 2-3 hours, turning once or twice.
6. Let it cool down in the marinade.
7. Remove the roast and set it aside. With the lid off, reduce the marinade in half. Remove the  rendered fat floating on the surface of the liquid using a fat separator.
8. Place the roast in a Ziploc bag and pour in the reduced and defatted marinade.

This was a perfect lunch for a weekend. I may have to make some ramen noodles to fully take advantage of this nice pork pot roast.

Squid in beer sauce tapa イカのビールソース煮タパ

We like squid. The only type of squid available in our regular grocery store is relatively small, cleaned and previously frozen. We can occasionally get a frozen, larger whole squid (probably "Surume-ika" スルメイカ) at the Japanese grocery store. In any case, here again, I got a pound of squid from our grocery store. I asked my wife how I should cook it and she reminded me of a tapa dish I used to make frequently but have not made in a long time. So, I consulted my tapas cookbook  and made this squid in beer sauce.

The recipe calls for small squid (less than 4 inches long). Many of the squid I had just bought were that size but some were larger so I cut them into two or three pieces. I served the dish at (room temperature) garnished with a wedge of Meyer lemon and chopped parsley as a small starter dish.

This went well with the Tempranillo we were enjoying (Ribera del Duero 2010 Matanegra Vendimia Seleccionada, WA 92 points).

Ingredients:
1 lb small squid tubes and tentacles, cleaned. If much larger than 4 inches long cut into several pieces.
1  medium sweet onion, finely chopped
3 cloves of garlic, crushed and peeled
1 bay leaf
1 medium tomato, skinned, seeded and chopped (I used 5 skinned Campari tomatoes)
4 tbs olive oil
Salt, pepper and sugar (1/4 tbs)
1/2 cup beer (I used rather hoppy Samuel Adams Brown ale)

Directions:
1. I put 2  tbs of olive oil in a sauce pan on a low flame and added the garlic stirring until fragrant and starting to turn color and added the onion and let it gently cook for 10 minutes with a lid on (#1 below).
2. After the onion was cooked, I added the tomato, bay leaf, sugar, salt and ground black pepper (#2) and kept cooking for another 5 minutes uncovered.
3. In a shallow casserole (I used my antique Pyrex ware), I added 2 tbs of olive oil and heated on a medium flame and sautéd the squid (#3) for 2-3 minutes and added the beer (#4), covered, lowered heat, and simmered for 10 minutes.
4. I added the onion-tomato sauce (#5), covered and cooked another 25 minutes (#6).
5. I removed the squid to a plate and set aside. On a medium flame, I reduced the sauce in half or until thickened (#7).
6. I returned the squid to the pan and cooked 10 more minutes (#8).

The squid was very tender and the sauce was great. My wife reminded me that we used to use this as a pasta sauce.

Spanish Mackerel dishes, two kinds サバの味噌煮と竜田揚げ

We bought a whole Spanish mackerel from our nearby gourmet grocery store. Again, the exact Japanese name for Spanish Mackerel is unclear but  I will just call it "saba" 鯖 さば. Certainly it looks and taste like one. I asked the fishmonger to just gut the fish. I made miso-ni 味噌煮 simmered in miso sauce (left) and tatsuta-fry 竜田揚げ.

I made the miso simmered mackerel in the morning and reheated it just before serving. Then I fried up the marinated tatsuta mackerel. This one was well seasoned and did not require any sauce just a bit of lemon juice.

I garnished the miso simmered mackerel with thin julienne of ginger or "hari shouga" 針生姜 and thinly sliced scallion.

Preparation of the fish:

This was a rather large mackerel. I filleted it "sanmai-ni-orosu" or sliced it into three layers (two layers of fillets and one layer of backbone and head). I removed the belly portion and also removed the meat under the fins since there are many small bones under the fins. Using a Japanese bone tweezer, I removed any small bones which remained.

I cut the pieces into rectangles and scored the skin so it wouldn't break during cooking. I divided the pieces into two groups. I simmered one group in miso sauce and the other I fried into tatsuta.

1. Mackerel braised in miso sauce サバの味噌煮

Ingredients:

Mackerel, one fillet, cut into rectangles with the skin shallowly scored. 

300 ml water

100 ml sake

5tbs miso

3tbs sugar

4 slices of ginger

Directions:

I placed the water and sake with the ginger slices in a frying pan and brought it to a boil. I placed the mackerel in with skin side up. I removed some liquid and used it to dissolve a mixture of miso and sugar. Once dissolved I added it back to the pan (#1) and turned down the flame to simmer. I placed the otoshibuta (my usual silicone lid) on top (#2).

I simmered it until the sauce became thick and clung to the fish (for about 45 minutes to 1 hour) (#3).

2. Mackrel tatsuta fry 鯖の竜田揚げ

Ingredients:

Mackerel, one fillet, cut into rectangles.

Soy sauce and mirin (1:1 ratio)

1 tsp grated ginger

Potato starch for dredging

Oil for deep frying

Directions:

In a Ziploc bag, I marinated the mackerel for several hours in the refrigerator. 

I blotted the excess marinade using paper towels and dredged the pieces in the potato starch (#4).

I deep fried it in 350F oil for a few minutes turning once (#6).

Both dishes were quite good but we liked the miso flavored one best. Although these two dishes are good drinking snacks, we had them with rice. Especially the miso-ni was best on the rice (OTR). We were pleasantly surprised that the Spanish mackerel we got was very fresh and the resulting dishes were great.

Curry filled pocket カレー入りパイポケット

I stopped making a Japanese curry (from a package of curry roux) for some time because my wife took an interest in making more authentic Indian style curries. But, one weekend, I just had a hankering for the taste of classic Japanese curry.  So I made some using a package of "medium hot" curry roux and added chicken thighs, potatoes, carrots and onions, the usual suspects used in a Japanese curry. We ate a few curry dinners but we had some leftovers curry but not enough for another dinner. I mentioned in passing to my wife that another Japanese favorite is a fried bread stuffed with curry or カレーパン. She immediately came up with the idea of stuffing her "baked pocket" with the leftover curry. Here is the end results. The shell is made of a pie crust and baked.

You can't see much but it is filled with curry (she mashed the vegetables, particularly the potatoes to make it thicker in consistency and cut the chicken into smaller pieces so they would fit).

The original curry was made in the classic Japanese way with chicken thigh meat, sauteed onion, potato and carrot with a Japanese medium hot curry roux. She shredded the chicken and mashed vegetables to make more homogenous and thicker sauce (#1).  Using her pocket making gadget, she cut the rounds of pie crust (frozen packaged, thawed and rolled) and filled with the curry stuffinfg using a medium size ice cream scoop (#2). The edges were painted with a mixture of flour and water (sort of edible glue) and the pocket maker closed and pressed (#3) making perfect stuffed pie pockets (#4).

She baked this in a preheated 350F oven for 15 minutes. 

This is a great snack for weekdays when we came back from work and needed something to fill the holes in your stomach quickly. It heats up well in a toaster oven. Although it was a bit spicy, it was very satisfying almost like a comfort food. It also went well with a glass of cab.

Grilled chicken wings simmered in Coke 手羽のコーク照り焼き

We have seen recipes which involve meat cooked in or sauce made of Coca Cola. This recipe, involving simmering chicken wings in Cola before grilling, is from a Japanese cooking website I follow. Although we almost never drink soda/cola and we do not have cola handy in our household, I thought this was  worth a try. So the next time I was at the grocery store, I made a point of buying a bottle of Coca Cola (regular Coke, not diet or the "Zero" kind). I served a wing and drumette with lots of veggies including cauliflower with chimichurri sauce, coleslaw, blanched broccoli and skinned and sliced tomato seasoned with salt and olive oil.

The skin of the chicken was nicely browned but not crispy (but not unpleasant) and the meat was very tender.

I followed the directions fairly closely but I did not bother browning the skin before simmering in Coke and I also used both drumettes and wings (The original recipe only used drumettes).

Ingredients:

Chicken wings, 6 each wings and drumettes

Coca-Cola, regular, 1 bottle (16 fl oz or about 500 ml)

Garlic, 2-3 cloves

Japanese small whole dried red pepper, seeds removed, 2

Salt, 1/2 tsp

Sake 4 tbs

Soy sauce 5 tbs + sugar 2-3 tbs (I did not add sugar since Coke, to me, is very sweet.. a 12 oz can/bottle contains 52grams of sugar!).

Directions:

1. Brown skin in a frying pan with olive oil (I did not see the point of make skin brown before simmering in liquid and omitted this).

2. Add the Coke and sake to the chicken wings in the frying pan. Skim off any scum (for some reason, "scum" developed immediately when the Coke mixture was added. After the scum is removed, add soy sauce and cover the pan with aluminum foil which was shaped to fit the opening of the pan.

3. Simmer for 30 minutes.

4. I let it cool to room temperature.

5. Since I was not ready to eat the chicken I put the simmering liquid and the chicken wings in a sealable container and in the refrigerator.

6. A few days later, I removed the chicken wings from the marinade and grilled them in the toaster oven for 10-15 minutes or until the skin was nicely browned.

This is rather good. Coca Cola* contains acid (phosphoric acid) which apparently tenderized the meat. The other ingredients added flavor. Compared to the other grilled chicken wings we make, the meat of this one is very tender with a nice sweet and sour flavor.  If you divide up the simmering and baking steps for different days, as I have done here, you can enjoy baked/grilled chicken wings very quickly even on a workweek evening. I wonder if I cook the wings in black vinegar, soy sauce and mirin mixture, will the effect be similar.

*It contains Carbonated Water, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Caramel Color, Phosphoric Acid, Natural Flavors, Caffeine (as per Coca-cola website). 

Simmered Chestnuts and Chicken "Chikimarron" チキマロン鶏肉と栗の甘辛煮

I thought I had exhausted all my repertoire possible for dishes using chestnuts but then I encountered this recipe on line and decide to make it using what was left over after making "shibukawa-ni" 渋皮煮, "Chestnut croquettes" 栗のコロッケ and "Chestnut rice" 栗ご飯. This turned out to be a good dish and we had this as a sumptuous lunch over the weekend.



The name of the chicken chestnut dish I made is "Chiki-marron" チキマロン(Chiki-English for chicken and marron-French for chestnut). I used, cleaned chestnuts (both outer and inner skins removed as posted before). I started with whole/intact chestnuts (9 of them) but realized that unlike Japanese chestnuts they would not be intact after cooking because of the many deep crevasses characteristic of North American chestnuts.  I added additional 3 chestnuts that broke into several large chunks when I peeled them (#1).

I poured in 1 cup (about 200 ml) of "dashi" broth (I made it with kelp and bonito flakes), sugar (4 tbs), and sake (4 tbs). Once it came to the boil, I turned the flame down, skimmed off any scum from the surface and covered with a  "otoshi buta" 落とし蓋 . I simmered for 8 minutes (#2). I then added soy sauce (3 tbs) and simmered  for 10-15 minutes until the simmering liquid was reduced to less than half (#3). I added freshly deep fried chicken "kara-age" 鶏の唐揚げ (see below) and mixed and simmered for 1-2 minutes until the potato starch coating bloomed into gelatinous coating and absorbed the simmering liquid (#4).



For chicken Kara-age: I skinned and deboned chicken thighs and cut them into bites sized pieces. I made up all of them but used only two for this dish reserving the rest for future use. (Of course number of remaining pieces declined continuously because we started snacking on them as soon as I made them). My wife declare that I could stop right there the dish was great just as it was.

I made the Kara-age by using a small amount of soy sauce and grated ginger and massaged it. I then dredged in potato flour (katakuri-ko 片栗粉) and deep fried in 170F peanut oil for 5 minutes (or until the center of the meat is done and surface crispy) turning several times. I drained them on a rack for a few minutes then added kara-age chicken into the pot of chestnuts and sauce.  I cooked the mixture stirring constantly until the coating on the chicken absorbed the simmering liquid leaving the pieces with a glossy rich coating.

I had some frozen chestnut rice which I heated in the microwave. It revived very well and tasted almost like freshly made.



My wife likes to add a thin pat of sweet butter to her chestnut rice (which is not the traditional preparation but tastes good nonetheless). I also sprinkled on some  "Goma-shio" ごま塩 which is a mixture of black sesame and kosher salt (see below). This is a rather standard Japanese seasoning.



Although we love kara-age and we were a bit skeptical about this dish (put crispy chicken into liquid? Really?), this was quite good. The crispy coating transformed into an altogether different but very flavorful coating that went very well with the chestnuts. Most of the chestnuts crumbled a bit but were still very good. The combination of chestnut rice and this dish is also good and really enjoyed all the goodness of chestnuts.

Cold simmered vegetables 冷製野菜の煮付け

The last time when I was at the Japanese grocery store, I bought a whole daikon 大根. When I came home I found 1/3 of the daikon I previously purchased in the refrigerator. So, I decided to make something from this left over daikon. Although I was not sure what I was going to make, I decided to just prep it. I peeled and cut the daikon into half circles (about 1 inch thick) and boiled them with a small amount of raw rice. After 30-40 minutes, I removed the daikon pieces and put them in a sealable container and placed it in the refrigerator. The next day, I made dashi broth from dried kelp and bonito flakes. I seasoned the broth with mirin and light colored "usukuchi" soy sauce 薄口醤油 and simmered the precooked daikon and carrot (this was not precooked). Although the dish was ready-to-go the weather was extremely hot and humid so the idea of eating a hot dish was not appealing so I placed it in the refrigerator. The next day, I served these vegetable cold. I added a bit more light colored soy sauce since the seasoning gets muted when served cold. Since we had a small amount of left over sou vide salmon, I also served that cold with a dab of Japanese hot mustard.



We were pleasantly surprised at how good and refreshing these cold simmered vegetables were. The dashi broth was very good since I made it without taking shortcuts.



We will make this dish as a regular "teiban" 定番 dish during the summer. We have more left, so we will be enjoying this a few more times.

New Japanese-style plate 新しいお皿

One of our favorite places to visit in Tokyo is Kappabashi 合羽橋. We really enjoy wandering in the seemingly endless array of shops dedicated to cookware. While there is much we see and we would love to add to our collection there is only a limited amount of luggage space to accommodate our indulgences. As a result most of our Japanese-style plates and bowls come from the local pottery club’s annual sale or by mail (Internet) order; the company we use most often is Korin 光琳. So on our recent trip to New York, we were delighted to find a Kappabashi type neighborhood and a store that specialized in Chinese/Japanese style dishes. Our quest took us to the edge of Chinatown along Bowery street. While there were many stores specializing in restaurant-related items, there was nothing on the level of Kappabashi. We didn't let that stop us; we bought a few items and, luckily, we had them shipped home. One of our purchases is shown below.

I really like collecting interesting dishes because having that perfect vessel to display and present food adds so much to the overall enjoyment of the eating experience; first feasting through sight then smell and taste. I saw this type of plate somewhere before and wanted to have one for some time. One side is curved and has a square well and the other side is flat with a slightly raised rim. Although I did not make anything special, I decided to serve some small dishes using this newly acquired plate.

On the left is black vinegar/soy sauce simmered chicken thigh and daikon (half each) served with blanched broccoli and a dab of Japanese hot mustard. On the right is small piece of salmon briefly marinated (I used noodle sauce from the bottle) and grilled in the toaster oven. I sprinkled "sansho" powder.

I think this is a neat plate. I have to come up with the combination of small drinking snacks appropriate for this vessel.