Hanami #2 花見＃2

After our first hanami 花見, we were expecting bad weather and rain.  However,  luckily, we had a second nice day of hanami and I made another attempt at a hanami bento 花見弁当. This time, I filled the smaller lidded box with scattered sushi or “chirashi-zushi” ちらし寿司 made of smoked salmon, marinated “ikura” salmon roe いくらの醤油漬け(#1).

Opening the lid of the smaller box revealed scattered sushi (#2 left upper). I also served Russian marinated salmon 鮭のロシアずけ topped with ikura (#2 upper right) and herring marinated in wine sauce (store-bought) topped with sour cream mixed with the brine from the herring jar and chopped dill (#2, lower left). The smaller box without a lid, I served salmon kelp roll 鮭の昆布巻き, “kinpira gobo” 金平牛蒡 braised burdock root, mock tofu 擬制豆腐, braised spicy marinated tofu ピリカラ豆腐, braised crunchy cauliflower モンパルナスのカリフラワー and crispy marinated  enoki mushroom エノキのパリパリ焼き, skinned Campari tomato, and chicken liver simmered in red wine 鶏肝の赤ワイン煮.

I used frozen rice to make sushi rice. I just microwaved the rice until warm, added the sushi vinegar (from the bottle) mixed and microwaved a bit more to warm up. I mixed it again and let it sit for 5 minutes. It was not the best sushi rice but certainly good enough for the purpose. I marinated ikura with x4 concentrated Japanese noodle sauce overnight in the refrigerator. I first placed the sushi rice on the bottom of the small covered box then distributed ikura over half of the rice surface followed by smoked salmon (#3). I topped this with a julienne of cucumber and golden thread egg or “kinshi-ran” 金糸卵 and nori threads or “kizami-nori” 刻み海苔(#4). Since we were not expecting to have the second hanami this was a bonus and what I put together for the occasion was pretty satisfying.

Now, our main cherry tree (“somei-yoshino” 染井吉野 which has a bottle brush appearance of numerous blossoms covering the branches (foreground) and the more traditional one like depicted in “ukiyoe” painting of edo time 江戸時代の浮世絵  which is in the background are both in full bloom displaying their individual personalities in the shape and characteristics of their petals. 

Mackerel hand-shaped sushi 鯖の棒鮨

Shime-saba しめ鯖 is vinegar pickled mackerel and a very popular item in Japan. The best is fresh local “branded” mackerel (such as “Seki-saba” 関鯖) prepared in-house but, nowadays, the risk of Anisakis is rising possibly due to warming of the sea water. (The fresher the mackerel the higher the Anisakis’ risk. In addition, curing the fish in salt and vinegar does not kill the Anisakis but freezing does). We can easily get shime-saba in the U.S. packaged and frozen. Although there are so many varieties of  mackerel, most frozen packages coming from Japan to the U.S. use mackerel from Norway as I understand it. I have posted molded sushi made of shime saba which is called “baterra” バッテラ or “oshizushi” 押し寿司. This type of sushi is famous in the Kansai region 関西. In that post, I said that the classic preparation requires a thinly shaven sheet of kelp called “Shiroita konbu” 白板昆布 placed on top of the fillet of fish. Such a preparation is next to impossible to get here in US. Some days ago, however, I found a package of frozen mackerel with a sheet of kelp already on it in Tako Grill’s frozen case and got it. This must be a new product which became available recently since I saw the identical item at the Japanese grocery store as well as at Catalina Offshore products. 

Instead of using a mold to shape the sushi, I made it freehand which is called “Bou-zushi” 棒鮨 (“bou” means a rod or stick). The picture below shows the “saba-no-bouzushi” 鯖の棒鮨 I served as the ending shime dish one evening. As you can see, the surface of the fish is covered with a layer of thinly shaven kelp.

Ingredients:
One package of frozen vinegar cured mackerel as described above, thawed, tail portion cut and tucked in to make an even width.
Sushi rice (my wife made fresh rice for this).


Directions:
Instead of using oshizushi mold, I formed a log of the sushi rice about the same length and width as the mackerel by hand (you need to wet your hand).
Using a silicon sushi rolling mat (relatively recent acquisition, you could use a regular bamboo mat covered with plastic wrap or wet tea towel), place the mackerel skin or kelp side down.
Place the log of the rice onto the mackerel.
Press the rice lightly against the mackerel and roll the silicon mat (top image in the picture below)
Tighten the mat and also press on both sides of the rice to make the rice and the mackerel form a slightly flattened cylinder and unroll (bottom image in the picture below).

Wet the knife and slice about half inch thick (below).

In this cut surface, you could see bottom rice layer and top mackerel layer and surface kelp layer.

This was a very satisfying dish. The layer of mackerel was very thick, but very tender and well seasoned. My wife really like this and said the ratio of sushi rice to fish was perfect. With the addition of kelp layer, it is authentic and tastes better (I think). Since I did not have to find and soak the mold ahead of time, this method was a bit easier to make.

Take-out sashimi from Tako Grill タコグリルからのテイクアウト

We have been taking out omakase sushi and sashimi 刺身と寿司おまかせ from Tako Grill since March of 2020 after it closed for dining-in. I have posted a few of these take-out sashimi and sushi dishes. I usually re-plate them on two plates for one serving each. I usually use rectangular plates but this time, I used round plates we got recently which are currently our favorite.

Today’s sashimi was Oo-tro tuna 大トロ, hamachi はまち and botan-ebi ボタン海老 (could be Argentinian red shrimp). All were quite good. I also use all the trimmings such as the daikon or perilla from the take-out box.

I re-arranged the uni and squid sashimi  rolled in perilla leaves ウニとイカの刺身大葉巻き into a small dish with julienne of perilla 大葉 and nori 刻みのり, dressed with wasabi-jouuyu ワサビ醤油.

We also got 4 deep dried shrimp heads (extra benefit of Botan ebi sashimi) which were also great. We got nearly filled up with these assorted sashimi but we finished with the serving of sushi  (including one California roll with real lump crab) that was the last part of the take-out. We really enjoy this sashimi and sushi feast at home with cold sake. It is a great to kick back, relax and enjoy our meal with sake libation in the comfort of our home without having to worry about a drive back from the restaurant through traffic. 

Philadelphia (Philly) rolls "Hosomaki" 細巻きフィラデルフィアロール

Although I have posted  Philadelphia rolls (or Philly rolls) 6 years ago, it was a medium sized (chumaki 中巻) and the nori outside (omotemaki 表巻き). I also said in that post that this could be a thin roll with the rice outside (Hosomaki 細巻き and Uramaki 裏巻き) like California rolls. So this is exactly that version. The reason I made Philly rolls is that the type of smoked salmon we got from Vital Choice which was called "wild salmon lox" was sliced a bit too thick and did not have much of a smoked flavor so it didn’t work well with our usual smoked salmon dishes such as blini, smoked salmon and ikura dish. I made sandwiches using this lox with avocado and cucumber on croissants smeared with cream cheese one side and mayo on the other which was quite good. A few days later I made these Philly rolls for an ending "shime" 〆 dish in the evening. 

I made two rolls. The first one (upper row) came out better. For this, we made fresh rice and made the sushi rice using a Japanese cedar "hinoki" 檜 vessel  called "Hangiri" 飯切りor sushi-oke 寿司桶. We brought this so many years ago when we visited Kiso 木曽 but amazingly it still smells of Hinoki wood. In any case, this Philly roll was made exactly like California rolls but instead of crab meat and avocado, I used lox, cream cheese and cucumber. I also sprinkled the outside layer with white sesame as in California rolls. In this preparation, the lox from Vital Choice tasted great.

As a small side dish I served simmered tender octopus leg 蛸の軟らか煮 (shown below).

I also served cucumber asazuke 胡瓜の浅漬け with salt broth soaked sugar snap スナップ豌豆の塩びたし.

This was a rather large shime dish for us but it was very good and both of us managed to finish it. (Such a hardship…not!)

Scattered sushi ちらし寿司

When we have salmon, I make salmon salad from the leftover cooked salmon. My wife thinks the combination of sushi rice and mayo-based items go well together (which I totally agree). We have made a roll sushi and “Gunkan” sushi from the salmon salad. One weekend, we realized our store of frozen cooked rice was getting low (it is always so convenient to have frozen rice), so we decided to make fresh rice for lunch to increase the frozen rice reserve*. Then my wife asked, “How ‘bout using the fresh rice to make scattered sushi or “chirashi-zushi” ちらし寿司 using the salmon salad (which I had just made in the morning) ?” As I posted before, scattered sushi is just a bed of sushi rice and the topping can be almost anything from totally vegan to all kind of sashimi fish. So, this is what I came up with which does not involve any raw or sashimi fish but, in addition to the salmon salad,  I added cooked shrimp and scallops.

* Frozen rice reserve: Making fresh rice this time did not help increase our frozen rice reserve. In addition to eating several portions as sushi for lunch, we then decided to have Yakitori 焼き鳥 in the evening since the weather was so nice and we had 4 chicken thighs we needed to cook. My wife greatly appreciates having grilled rice balls or “Yaki onigiri” 焼きおにぎりwhen we do Yakitori.  So, I also made four small rice balls in preparation. As a result there was not much of the freshly made rice to freeze as a reserve.

I may have gone slightly overboard especially since this was a  lunch.  The garnish included golden thread eggs or “Kinshi-ran” 金糸卵, pickled ginger or”gari” 生姜の甘酢漬け or ガリ, cucumber seasoned with sweet vinegar きゅうりの酢の物 and nori threads or “Kizami-nori” 刻みのり.

We made fresh rice, using rice we got from the New York Rice factory and is grown in Hokkaido “Yumepirika” 夢ぴりか. I used sushi vinegar from the bottle (Mizkan brand). I used as much sushi vinegar as the rice could absorb (about 10% of the weight of rice). I made the sushi rice in a Japanese “hinoki” cedar  tub or “han-giri” 半切 that we bought in Japan many years ago and amazingly still has a beautiful hinoki smell. I covered the seasoned rice with a wet dish towel and let it sit for 5-10 minutes so the rice could absorb the seasoned vinegar.

I added the sushi rice to the bottom of the bowl (square bowl we got in Sapporo just after we got married so many years ago).

For the scallops and shrimp (both were frozen and came from Great Alaska Seafood),  I thawed and gently poached them in salted water with a dash of sake. I made the scallops into several thin slices. After removing the shells, I halved the shrimp length wise.

I placed the salmon salad on the center of the rice and spread seasoned sliced shiitake mushroom (brown circle around the salmon salad). Then I distributed the scallops and shrimp around the shrimp salad and mushrooms. 

Then, I added the garnish as seen in the previous pictures.

This was a really luxurious lunch. This dish once again confirmed my wife’s notion that sushi rice and mayo-based toppings go well together. 

Tako Grill Take-out タコグリルからテイクアウト

Our Izakaya substitute "Tako Grill" has been close for dining-in for some time. Mr. Terry Segawa indicated that they would operate in a take-out rather than sit-in format. He also added a Japanese grocery section. Although we will miss being able to  interact with the sushi chefs and Mr and Mrs Segawa, we have been enjoying Omakase sushi and take-out all during covid. One of the pluses of take-out is that we do not have to worry about driving home afterwards. To make the experience more enjoyable, I usually re-plate the food. An example of which is shown in the next picture. Using the garnish they provided, I rearranged the sashimi into two servings; one for me and one for my wife instead of sharing the plate (which is what we used to do at Tako Grill at the sushi counter).

Today, we got nicely marbled “toro tuna” almost looking like Wagyu beef, in the center is “hamachi” and on the right is “aji” horse mackerel. Since aji sashimi is best eaten with grated ginger and soy sauce, I used sauce bowl which had two wells and served both wasabi (using Tako Grill provided one) and added grated ginger (from tube) soysauce

 

I rearranged “uni” sea urchin and squid sashimi into a small bowl and added a garnish of nori strips and wasabi dissolved in soy sauce.

Whenever, we get “Aji” sashimi, Sushi Chef  Santos always serves us deep fried aji skeleton. Even for the take-out, this is included. We heated it up in the toaster oven on toasting  mode. It comes out hot and crispy almost like just out of hot oil. Since there is only one, we share it. We essentially eat everything including the head.

Like we are dining in, we finish with some sushi. Today, we got Japanese “tai” red snapper, toro and eel sushi and our usual California roll made of real lump crab meat and addition of  tobiko roe.

Although someday, we may be able to dine-in again, we are quite happy with this arrangement. We also get some Japanese groceries which is definitively a big plus. We are regularly getting frozen edamame (they have the best quality edamame), Japanese crackers (especially my wife likes them), Tonkotsu ramen, and green tea ice cream daifuku among others.  We hope this new format will work for Tako Grill as a business. We are certainly very happy with this format.

Sushi Taro "regular" kaiseki box "普通”の寿司太郎会席弁当

We have gotten several "Special" kaiseki boxes 特別会席弁当 from Sushi Taro which we enjoyed immensely. This time because of a large catering job in which Chef Kitayama was involved, they could not provide us with a "special" version but a "regular" kaiseki box was available. Since we never had a "regular" kaiseki box we went ahead and ordered it. This was quite good but also quite different from the "special" kaiseki box we had been getting. Everything comes in elegant one-time-use paper boxes and plates which closely emulate Japanese lacquer ware boxes and china dishes as you can see below. In contrast to the special Kaiseki, instead of all kinds of little different dishes, this one focused more on sashimi and sushi. Each of the two boxes were identical and each contained 4 pieces of sashimi, as well as 9 nigiri plus one half “negitoro” roll and one half rainbow roll equaling the equivalent of one whole roll . The kaiseki part of the box contained 3 dishes.

The Sashimi assortment was composed of "akami" red meat of wild bluefin tuna, flounder, arctic charr and sweet shrimp, all excellent in taste and quality.

One of the 3 kaiseki dishes shown below was "Goma-dofu" 胡麻豆腐 sesame tofu topped with blue crab and "ikura" salmon roe and I think small cubes of "ankimo monkfish liver. This was lovely with a smooth texture and the salmon roe and monkfish liver really added an elegant touch.

Another was shrimp cream croquette in lobster sauce which also contain small chunks of crunchy cauliflower accompanied by crunchy deep fried sweet potato and "renkon" lotus root. There is no way one could go wrong with this crowd pleaser. What is not to like about the smooth creamy texture and sweet taste of crab wrapped in golden crunchy crust accompanied by crunchy renkon and sweet crunchy sweet potato?

Grilled miso-marinated "Gindara" 銀鱈 sable fish or black cod topped with mushrooms and chestnuts. This one was "off the charts". The fish was succulent, melted in the mouth and was covered with a wonderful sauce surrounded by complementary mushrooms.

The sushi section of the box shown below included Nigiri-zushi 握り寿司 included ikura, Maine uni, "anago" sea eel, "aji" horse mackerel (upper row, left to right), "kohada"gizzard shad, bluefin tuna "chutoro", " madai" Japanese snapper, King salmon, and kampachi  (middle row, left tp right), Negitoro roll and rainbow roll with spicy tuna in the center (bottom row, left to right). All of it was excellent. It was also quite a substantial meal. No one would walk away from this hungry; it would satisfy even the heartiest eater in the crowd. (remember we got two sets of this since we ordered boxes for two which is a minimum order).

The regular kaiseki box is quite different from the special kaiseki box but we really quite enjoyed it. Nonetheless, although it is a bit more expensive, our absolute favorite and top choice remains the "tokubetsu" or special kaiseki box. The regular Sushi Taro kaiseki box, however, would, definitely be the next runner-up.

Special take-out Kaiseki box from Sushi Taro 寿司太郎のテイクアウト特製会席弁当

Prior to COVID the omakase counter at Sushi Taro was our special-occasion-go-to place. As a matter of fact, we had a reservation in March this year but because of COVID, that got canceled. I knew for some time that, although the restaurant was closed, Sushi Taro has been doing take-out. But getting there either from home or work for the pick-up was impractical. Since I started thinking about the NewYear “Osechi” 御節 from Sushi Taro, I contacted them. I was delighted to find out that they are going to do Osechi for the next New Year and I quickly placed an order. During that interaction, I learned that they do special omakase kaiseki boxes-to-go and that they can deliver. I quickly placed an order. Delivery was scheduled for Friday at 5pm. We were like little kids in anticipation. I even "just happened" to come home from work a bit early for the delivery. It arrived in two, two-tiered (bento or modified jubako?) boxes. (a total of four boxes with three compartments each). We initially thought we got two identical sets but when we opened the second box, surprise!  We were totally blown away. All compartments contained many wonderful different dishes. The first one had some cooked dishes, two different kinds of sushi. The cooked dishes in the top tier were still warm.

The second set included fresh sashimi and sashimi fish dishes.

Disclaimer alert:  This entry is just for us to remember what we enjoyed so we can relive the experience. A menu was not included so in some cases I am guessing what the dishes were and may be totally wrong.

We started with sashimi 刺身. Akami 赤身, chu-toro 中トロ, hamachi ハマチ, salmon サーモンand ama-ebi shrimp 甘海老.

From upper left clockwise: grilled ginko nuts 焼銀杏 (We love ginko nuts.We used to be able to buy small cans of boiled ginko nuts but they totally disappeared and we have not seen them for sometime. ), California Uni カルフォルニア雲丹, cod roe たらこ (not a “mentaiko” 明太子 but with some spice), grilled egg plant 焼きナス (it must have also been smoked. It had a nice smokey flavor and the broth was subtly seasoned and delicious ).

Abalone liver simmered with sansho 鮑の肝煮物 (I think this is seasoned with whole sansho pepper 実山椒, a type of “arimani” 有馬煮, this is a perfect drinking snack and we love it, the red berry must be goji berry or “kuko” クコ), sake steamed abalone 鮑の酒蒸し with a nice seasoning , I think the next one is Hokkaido "bafun" uni 北海道のバフンウニ , and under the cover is ikura marinated in soy sauce いくらの醤油漬け. (On one of our visits to the restaurant we had an impromptu uni tasting to compare California vs Maine vs Hokkaido - they are all good but I am a little partial to the Hokkaido uni mostly because I am originally from there. 

From the left upper clockwise: Some kind o pate/paste. I am not sure but monk fish liver ("ankimo" 鮟肝) may be included, some kind of fish liver simmered, edible flower petal (probably chrysanthemum) and chestnut "sibukawa-ni" 渋皮煮.

The dish shown below was a small whole simmered fish with roe, "kanroni" 甘露煮.  I thought this could be "Ayu" sweet fish but it was not.  So, I don't know exactly what it was. It could be "Iwashi" イワシ sardine. It was cooked to tenderness and the bone was soft and could be eaten. It was topped with "shiraga-negi" white hair scallion 白髪葱 . This is an example of the attention to detail characteristic through out these dishes. The scallion was a small detail but it went very well with this fish and really set off the dish.

From the top, kaskino-ha-zushi 柿の葉寿司 (trout sushi wrapped in persimon leaves), flower renkon 花輪レンコン and shime saba oshizushi (battera) しめ鯖の押し寿司 or バッテラ.

Nigiri-sushi 握り寿司. From the top left clockwise: Hamachi ハマチ, Toro トロ, kohada コハダ, sweet omelet, anago with “tsume“ sauce 穴子, and saba サバ or sawara さわら.

Pictured below large prawn/small lobster; probably "botan-ebi" ボタン海老 (raw) in a gentle broth,  topped with myoga, roe (cooked), and julienne of red and green sweet pepper. The sweet pepper and sweet meat went well together complementing each other.

Crab meat, jelle sauce, ikura, slices of dried persimmon 干し柿 and other items. Again, sweetness of the persimmons and crab are good match.

The next three dishes are all cooked and contain some kind of fish/sea food. The selection of ingredients such as the matsutake, myoga, chestnuts and kabocha in these dishes as well the use of eggplant and persimmon in the dishes above exemplify the autumn season.  The use of seasonal ingredients is another example of the attention to detail shown through out the dishes in these boxes. 

Underneath of all the vegetables were two good sized shrimp balls shinjo エビしんじょ(minced shrimp and white fish paste). Fried lotus root, kabocha, simmered "fu" gluten cake, matsutake stems, green beans topped with zest of “kabosu” かぼす.

Simmered “kabu”turnip かぶ, chestnuts 栗 and fish (cod?). The green is most likely “Mizuna” 水菜 .

Small tasty fish (I do not know what it is), simmered, matsutake 松茸, fried shishito ししとう, picked myoga 茗荷の甘酢漬け.

Fortunately, we just got a shipment of sake from Tippsy sake. We had a cold “Kagatobi” 加賀鳶 純米吟醸 from Ishikawa-prefecture 石川県. We throughly enjoyed these wonderful dishes in the comfort of home. It was quite a memorable treat!

Hanami at home 2020

This is the small "Somei Yoshino" 染井吉野 cherry tree we planted to replace the 30+ year old cherry tree destroyed in a nor'easter in 2018. It is still fairly small but it is in full bloom. Another older, larger tree is just 80% in bloom and the third small one blossomed early and now the flowers are gone. Because of the Covid19 pandemic, all restaurants in our area are closed or only open for takeout. So, one weekday, I placed a takeout order for sashimi and sushi from Tako Grill and picked it up on the way home.

Tako Grill was running with minimal staff, Terry at the sushi bar, his wife managing the floor and one cook in the kitchen. Shown below is our sashimi takeout. They had toro, hamachi, uni with squid and Japanese "tai" snapper cured on kelp ("Kobu jime).

Since the little cherry tree was in full bloom and we had a lovely sashimi/sushi takeout, I put together the plate shown below and declared an impromptu  hanami, .

We also got out ususal line up of sushi (toro and hamachi), and California roll (with real lump crab).

The small cherry tree only reaches just above the railing of our deck but it is still beautiful. The sashimi was great. Even the uni was from Maine, it was especially good.

We really enjoyed this and when the sashimi plate was empty we moved on to the sushi without missing a beat. In these trying times, little moments like this are especially cherished and appreciated. We sincerely hope all restaurants and other business can weather this and will soon be open for regular business again. In the meantime, thanks goodness for takeout. Stay safe!

Crab cake sushi クラブケーキちらし寿司

 I made crab cakes, using a recipe I posted some time ago . From one container of crab meat,  I made 5 cakes. We ate two immediately but three were left (see below). This time, I made the crab cake with sautéed onion, shiitake mushroom, jalapeño pepper and fresh dill. I also added Meyer lemon zest (micro-grated), lemon juice and seasoned it with a splash of Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper and bound it with panko, dijon mustard and mayonnaise.

Since we had gotten the crab meat to make California roll, my wife suggested we could (sort-of) stick to our original objective by using the crab cakes to make scattered sushi ちらし寿司. Also, we had discovered, on our last trip to Japan, that ingredients such as tuna salad made with mayonnaise work really well with sushi rice. So since the crab cakes included mayo, my wife thought they should work well over the sushi rice. She made fresh rice for the occasion and I made it into sushi rice.  First, I warmed the crab cakes in the toaster oven and the broke them into small chunks on the sushi rice.

Taking the cue from California rolls, I also added cubes of avocado, dressed in lemon juice and a bit of mayonnaise.

Since perilla has started coming out in profusion in our herb garden, I added a chiffonade of perilla 青じそ.

Finally, I topped it with thin strips of nori.

We had this on our day off as an ending "shime" dish. As my wife predicted this was really good. We thought that since it was a shime, the amount of rice may be too much but it tasted so good we couldn't stop and ended up eating the whole thing. As opposed to just using crab meat as is done with classic California roll, using crab cake added more complex flavor dimensions and texture.  For this, we switched to our "Tengumai daiginjo" sake 天狗舞大吟醸酒.