Shrimp and cucumber salad with "Kimisu" egg yolk vinegar sauce 黄身酢の和え物

When I made shrimp balls (which required egg whites), I was left with two egg yolks. I was pondering how to use them. The yolks were from regular not from pasteurized eggs, so making mayonnaise was not feasible. Hollandaise sauce was another possibility but I settled for Japanese "Kimisu" 黄身酢 sauce. I have posted "kimisu" previously. That one came out a bit thinner than I wanted. This time, my kimisu sauce came out very thick and creamy. I made a small starter salad with shrimp, cucumber, wakame sea weed 若芽 and Campari tomato.

Since I had, tobiko roe とびこ I used it as a garnish on the top.

As you can see the kimisu sauce did not just run down the sides and had almost a soft mayo texture.

I used salt-preserved (not dried) wakame which tasted better.

Chef Kitayama of Sushi Taro told me that he froze the eggs he used for his sauce and then removed the egg yolks for kimisu to make a thick creamy texture. It was too late for that and, rather than winging it, I looked up recipes to accomplish thick and creamy kimisu sauce.  Among the many variations of recipes I settled on this recipe by a professional Japanese cooking teacher. He suggested to use a whisk and double boiler and whisk in air to make it creamy. In addition, the seasoning was slightly different from what I was doing. The original recipe used 3 egg yolks but I had only two. I had to make proportional changes in other ingredients to accomodate. I also reduced the sugar (my instinct told me otherwise it would be too sweet).

Ingredients (enough to dress 6 of these small salads):

Egg yolks, two

Rice vinegar 2/3 tbs

Mirin 2/3 tbs

Sugar 1 tsp

Light colored soy sauce  2/3 tbs

Dashi broth 1 1/3 tbs

Salt to taste

Directions:

In the upper pan of a double boiler, I combined all the ingredients. When the water in the lower pan started boiling, I turned it down to simmer and put the upper pan over the boiling water and started whisking vigorously.  I occasionally removed the upper-pan to prevent the sauce from becoming scrambled eggs. After it started thickening, I kept it on the heat and kept whisking for two more minutes. I cut off the heat and kept whisking for another minute or two and let it cool down. After it cooled, I put the sauce in a small seal-able container and kept it in the refrigerator until I was ready to use it  (According to this recipe, it will keep 2-3 days refrigerated).

Shrimp: I thawed frozen shrimp, then cooked it by gently boiling it in salted water with a dash of sake for 2-3 minutes. I sliced the shrimp in two lengthwise and cut the resulting strips in half.

Cucumber: I used one American mini-cumber washed and salted, rolled on the cutting board and let stand for 10 minutes, then washed and dried using a paper towel and sliced thinly. I salted it and kneaded it and let it stand for another 10 minutes. I squeezed out the excess moisture and dressed the cucumber in sushi vinegar. I squeezed out the excess dressing before assembly.

Wakame seaweed: I used the "raw" salt preserved kind. I washed off the salt and soaked in filtered water for a few minutes. I squeezed out the excess moisture and dressed it in sushi vinegar.  Excess dressing squeezed out before assembly.

This was certainly a nice thick and creamy kimisu sauce. When I took it out of the refrigerator, the sauce was stiffer than I wanted it too be, so I added a small amount of broth and mixed it in to loosen it. In retrospect, I should have added more vinegar to loosen the sauce. I could have used a more assertive vinegar flavor in this sauce. In any case, using a whisk and introducing air made this kimuzu sauce very thick and creamy. The entire small salad tasted great.

Cold pasta with cherry tomato トマトの冷製パスタ

I saw some nice looking cherry tomatoes in a pouch at the grocery store and bought them. Then, I saw this recipe on line and decided to try it as a Sunday lunch. It was an unusually nice weekend and we spent as much time as we could on our deck. This is a wonderful dish and we will make this again. It will become one of our regular dishes especially in the hot summer months.

Although I was sure we had some, I could not find any Angel hair pasta in our pantry (or Capellini) (which was used in the original recipe). So I used Linguine instead. The packaged Prosciutto  from our regular grocery store was not the best quality but it was OK. 

Ingredients: (for 2 servings):

Cherry tomatoes, 1 package (about 10, they were rather large for cherry tomatoes)

Olive oil, 1 tbs (or more depending on your preference).

Garlic, small clove, crashed using a garlic press.

Japanese concentrated (x3) sauce for noodles or "Mentsuyu" めんつゆ,  1 tsp

Salt and pepper to taste

Linguini, dried, 1/3 package

Japanese concentrated (x3) sauce for noodles,  1 tsp, to season the noodle.

Fresh basil

Proscuitto, 4 (2 slices per serving).

Directions:

1. Skin the cherry tomatoes. I made a shallow "cross" on the stem end and plunged them into boiling water for 5 seconds and then transferred to an ice water bath. When cooled, I removed the skin(#1)
2. I placed half of the cherry tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, and Japanese noodle sauce in the mixing container for an immersion blender. I blended until it made an emulsion (#2). I tasted and seasoned with salt and pepper.
3. I cut the remaining cherry tomatoes into quarters (or halves if they were small) and placed them in the emulsion. I covered the container and placed it in the refrigerator (I did this in the morning).
4. I cooked the linguine as per the package instructions (12 minutes in salted rapidly boiling water).
5. I washed the noodles in cold running water and drained.
6. I placed the noodles in a bowl and added the Japanese noodle sauce, tossed and drained excess sauce. I further blotted excess moisture using paper towels (#3) as per the original recipe (I did this also in the morning, coved it and placed in the refrigerator).
7. At lunch time, I added the sauce to the noodle, added hand-torn fresh basil leaves and gently tossed and plated it (#4).
8. I arranged strips of prosciutto, basel, and drizzled on some of our good olive oil.

This was a unqualified success. The sauce was wonderful. It had a very light but refreshingly intense tomato flavor. It was great probably because the cherry tomatoes were very ripe and good. The linguini actually worked well. My wife thought this was a Japanese udon noodle (thin Inaniwa kind 稲庭うどん). It had some al dente texture remaining but worked nicely. The Japanese noodle sauce was not recognizable as such but definitely added a je ne sais quoi flavor to the sauce and noodles ("Kakushi-aji" 隠し味 or hidden taste). The addition of prosciutto was also good. Although the prosciutto was not of the best quality, its saltiness really contrasted with the sweet and slightly sour taste of the sauce. Overall, we enjoyed this dish. It is perfect for a hot summer day lunch while lounging on the deck.

P.S. Since this was a really good dish, I made it a few days later with angel hair pasta and Campari tomato. Instead of hand-torn basil, I made a chiffonade which I thought would mix in better.

I even made a rose of prosciutto.

Angel hair past (capellini) appears to hold more sauce since the total surface area is larger than linguini for the same amount of pasta. We liked both.

Canned Mackerel canapé サバのアメリカ版缶詰のカナッペ

We tend to think canned food can last forever but apparently that is not the case. All canned goods have an expiration date. Although even when past its expiration date, canned food may still be quite good. When I see that the can is several years past its expiration date, however, I throw it out. I found several cans of sardines and anchovies in our pantry which fell into this category.  So the next time I was at the grocery store, I bought some replacement cans, one of which was canned mackerel in olive oil. Japanese canned mackerel サバ缶 is usual bone-in, cut cross-wise or "dou-giri" 胴切, it is either cooked in water or seasoned with miso or soy sauce. Either way, the bone is soft - probably pressure cooked - and can be eaten. The one I bought was boneless fillets packed in oil by "bumble bee tuna" company. I decided to use it to make a small canapé.

On the "everything flat bread", I smeared a mixture of our favorite Spanish olive oil and my wife's strained yogurt (Greek yogurt) with chopped fresh dill. I seasoned it with salt and freshly cracked black pepper. I then placed a skinned and sliced Campari tomato on top. Finally, I topped the stack with the filet of mackerel. 

This was rather good. The mackerel was neutral tasting. Despite being canned in olive oil it was not oily and the usual strong favor was not prominent. The Greek yogurt with olive oil is as good or better than sour cream (our home made creme fraiche could have been better, though).