“Fearsome” sanuki-udon noodle 恐るべきさぬきうどん

Some people are truly dedicated to noodles (soba, udon and ramen). "Sanuki 讃岐" is an area in kagawa prefecture 香川県 on shikoku island 四国.  It is famous for its udon noodle which is called "Sanuki Udon 讃岐うどん".  There are many udon restaurants in this region of Sanuki and touring around these places appears to be popular among the dedicated. We like udon (but we are far from being udon connoisseurs) and often substitute it in western dishes for spaghetti.  We usually buy dried udon noodles (many of them are labeled "sanuki" udon). One day, when I was looking at dried udon noodles at the Japanese grocery store, I saw a package of semi dry udon noodle called "Fearsome" sanumi udon 恐るべきさぬきうどん. I was a bit curious as to what this was all about and got a package.　

I made this warm udon in broth or Kakeudon かけうどん  with a slice of barbecued pork, abura-age deep fried tofu and shimeji mushroom.



I also served my simmered "Kabocha" pumpkin.



The picture below shows a package of  "Fearsome" sanuki udon 恐るべきさぬきうどん.

The noodles are semi-dried and much longer (folded in half) and slightly thicker than the usual dried varieties. It takes a bit longer to cook as well. I cooked it as per the package instructions, washed it in cold running water and placed it in a broth on simmer. The noodle has a bit more bite or firmness in the center than regular noodles. It is good but we are not sure if it is worthwhile to specifically buy this kind.

I used the noodles another time to make "Nabeyaki" udon 鍋焼きうどん. Since I had mochi 餅 left over from New Year, I also added mochi in a fried tofu pouch as well as simmered vegetables (daikon 大根, carrott, kon-nyaku コンニャク、all pre-cooked in a seasoned broth). I also added an egg and scallions.



Just before serving, I removed the tooth pick and cut the mochi in the pouch.



In this dish, I cooked the noodles with the other precooked items and the egg for 5 minutes. The noodles stayed rather firm in the center. These semi-dried udon noodles are good but since we are not dedicated connoisseurs of udon, the differences between this and the usual kind is not great enough to seek out this particular kind.

Digression alert: I later learned that "Osorubeki sanuki udon" 恐るべきさぬきうどん is the name of a column that appeared in a local magazine in Kagawa. The entire series of columns were published as multiple books by Kazutoshi Tao (田尾和俊). These book are a detailed guide of large and small udon noodle places in Kagawa which was said to have popularized udon tourism and restaurant tours. This particular noodle producer must be one of these udon places and must have somehow gotten the right to use this name.

Fried cheese curds 揚げチーズカード

My wife somehow got into making fresh cheese curds. She started this when she made an Indian style spinach curry with cheese curds. We are looking for new ways to serve them. From watching TV food shows, we learned about fried cheese curds. They appear to be specially famous and popular at county fairs in Wisconsin. Although the ones in Wisconsin are "cheddar cheese curds" and are yellow, my wife's are white in color. (I am not sure what the differences is but cheddar cheese curds appear to go through the "cheddaring process" which includes the addition of plant extracts such as annatto seeds which give the curd an orange-yellow color). In any case, regardless of what kind of cheese curds are used, breading and frying a cheese product cannot go wrong. I am sure this is not authentic Wisconsin but it was sure good enough for us.



The cheese curds do not melt, although they do get soft; nice crunchy outside and soft inside.



Batter:
There appears to be several variations, some use beer and others use baking powder for leavening.  I chose one without beer.

1 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs beaten
1/2 milk

This is the original amount for 1 lb of cheese curds.  I made only 8 small cubes as a trial.
I halved the recipe but there was still too much batter for the amount I made.

Instead of deep frying, I use "shallow" frying.



After the surface became nicely golden, I drained them on a paper towel.



We also tried our own style of fried curds. We just coated the curds with the mixture of flour and curry powder like our baked chicken wings.



This time, I used much less oil and turned it frequently so all the surfaces browned.



This was pretty good with crunchy crust but not too oily and easier to make. We tried this without the flour coating and the curd stuck to the bottom of the pan. We will use the flour coating method make this our own fried cheese curds in the future.

Warm sake 燗酒

We rarely drink warm sake but we are in the middle of a very cold spell and the temperature did not go above freezing for almost a week. For a few days, the temperature was in the single digits (Fahrenheit). So, in these frigid conditions, a cold drink was not particularly attractive. We made a nice fire in the fireplace and decided to go with warm sake. My wife found some long forgotten Hagi-ware 萩焼き sake bottles (ochoushi お銚子) . I warmed up the sake the traditional way as seen below.

 

The sake we had was "Gekeikan Black and Gold" 月桂冠 ブッラクアンドゴールド. This is a U.S. brewed sake. Although the details are difficult to come by, the sake was a mixture of sake brewed from rice milled to 60 and 70%. The exact kind of sake rice is not clear. By the degree of milling, this sake would be "Ginjou 吟醸酒" class but they classify this as "Junmai 純米酒" class.


How much to heat up the sake depends on the kind of sake and your preferences but, in general, “Honjouzou  本醸造” and “Junmai” 純米酒 are best suited for drinking warm. I think among the U.S. brewed sake, this one is best for drinking warm. The list below shows the different temperatures and corresponding names for various sakes.

“Jouon” 常温, room temperature 20℃ (68F)
”Hinata kan” 日向燗 sunny side 30℃ (86F)
”Hitohada kan” 人肌燗 skin temperature 35℃ (95F)
”Nuru kan” ぬる燗 luke warm 40℃ (104F)
”Jou kan” 上燗 warm 45℃ (113F)
”Atsu kan” 熱燗 hot 50℃ (122F)

I went for “Atsu kan” at 50C (using a instant read digital thermometer). Since the temperature drops quite quickly, I used a soup bowl filled with boiling water to maintain the temperature which worked well.


These were all leftover from the new year’s dishes I made. I stuffed white and red fish cakes 紅白かまぼこ with tobiko and ikura salmon roe and poured on some wasabi soy sauce. Below the fish cake are kelp salmon rolls, to the right are chicken squares with pine nuts and walnuts. Below that are simmered kabocha pumpkin, in the front on the left is Kimpira burdock root and boiled octopus leg seasoned with wasabi soy sauce.

Warm sake was really nice on this bitter cold evening and warmed us up quickly. The black and gold is a nice gentle sake and perfect for drinking warm.

Of course “Oden” is perfect for warm sake and cold night.

This night, we had an egg, kon-nyaku コンニャク, mochi in a pouch (mochi-kin 餅巾着), carrot 人参, daikon 大根, gobo-ten*ゴボテン and tofu 豆腐 garnished with chopped chives with Japanese hot mustard. All went well with warm sake.

* deep fried fish cake with center of burdock root or "satsuma"age with burdock root ゴボウ入りさつま揚げ.

Cauliflower Rice with Safran カリフラワーライス

I saw this interesting recipe in the food section of the WashingtonPost. Since I had a package of Iranian saffran (the second picture upper left) from one of my friends, I thought this is the dish I must try.  I served it with my wife's indian style lamb curry and homemade naan.



Ingredients: (for 2-3 servings)

Cauliflower, medium
Saffron, generous pinch
Cumin seeds 1/2 tsp
Olive oil 1/2 tbs
Salt to taste

Using a box grater (coarsest side), I grated the cauliflower by holding the stem end. I only grated the florets.

I added the saffron threads to a small bowl with a small amount of hot water (below, right upper).  I added the olive oil to a frying pan on medium high flame and added the cumin seeds. I sautéed it for one minute until fragrant and added the grated cauliflower (below, lower left) and cooked for 2 minutes. I then added the saffron and the water it soaked in and salt. I sautéed for 1 more minute (below, right lower).



When I read the recipe, the combination of cumin seeds and saffran sounded good but we did not particularly like this flavor profile. I may change the seasonings in the future.

PD Lebanon Bologna roll-up レバノンボロニャロールアップ

This is continuation of the Pennsylvania Dutch Lebanon Bologna saga. After making sandwiches, my wife made this snack several times. It goes so well with red wine. She said it was a classic PA Dutch snack. It is very simple to make and tastes great, although may not be good for you.



I am not sure, but I suspect, my wife did not enjoyed this with wine as a child.



It is rather simple to make. It is usually made with Philadelphia cream cheese (of course). This time, however, my wife used "cream cheese spread". We like the one with onion and chives. Just smear the cream cheese spread on one side of the bologna and roll it up, then cut into small tubes. If you wrap the rolls with a plastic wrap and refrigerate, it could probably be cut more neatly but it will taste the same. We tried this with both the sweet and the regular bologna and I have to say that although both taste good we much prefer the sweet variety.

This is a good snack for Cabernet. The bologna has nice smokey note with some sweetness, particularly if we use the sweet variety.

Super frozen Otoro from Fish-for-sushi, follow-up 超冷凍大トロ

I posted super-frozen Otoro from Fish-For-Sushi. The piece I got was not the best with large amounts of pure fat. Aside from writing my review, I did not contact the company to complain about the tuna we received. I was surprise when Fish-for-sushi customer support contacted me via email. Apparently, they came across my less than stellar review of their super-frozen otoro tuna and decided to take the initiative to reach out to a clearly less than satisfied customer. They said that the amount of fat varies and since I was not 100% satisfied, they offered to send another otoro tuna for me to taste.

The picture below is one of two servings I made from this otoro. As you can see, I sliced rather thick pieces. One set (on the right) was done in "aburi" 炙り or seared with a kitchen torch.


For libation, we opened American brewed dai-ginjou from California Yamadanishiki, "Shou-Chiku-Bai" 松竹梅.　



We are happy to report, this otoro was much much better than the previous one. It was nicely fatty and melted in the mouth. The Aburi" preparation adds an almost rare beef-like texture and additional charred flavor which nicely cuts the unctuous fattiness.



This is how it arrived 260 grams.



After thawing as per the instruction. Nice layering of fat.

We were impressed with Fish-for-sushi. They really redeemed themselves with their response. Adding them to our repertoire gives us two good sources of tuna sashimi (Catalina offshore products and Fish-For-Sushi). Having frozen sushi fish is nice since we can buy and hold it until needed like for New Year's Eve.

Addendum: Since I was so delighted I decided to order another otoro. The below was what I received.



Again, it had a quite large amount of pure fat which I removed (below).



Since the fat has a very firm texture, I generally don't include it as part of the otoro slice.  So, as usual, I cut the fat which I had separated from the block into small cubes and mixed with chopped chives and dressed with karashi sumiso 芥子酢味噌.



I sliced the rest of the otoro. I served this with ankimo 鮟肝 and vinegared octopus also dressed in karashi sumiso.



Here is the close up.



When all was said and done of the 260 grams (the same amount as in the first pictures above) the amount of otoro itself was just enough for two servings of otoro but there was not enough for the serving of aburi included in the first pictured serving above. Instead we had a nice serving of fat, as they said, things could be variable.

Steamed brown bread with honey cream cheese 蒸し黒パン

When I made pork buns, I remembered that my wife at one time made steamed brown bread and reminded her of it. She immediately got into action and, on one weekend, made this steamed brown bread. According to her, the classic should have been steamed in a can but she made it in deep ramekins. She said she reduced the amount of molasses since I am not particularly fond of strong molass-y flavor. According to her, this bread is eaten with honey cream cheese which she also whipped up by mixing honey and cream cheese. She sliced thin disks of the bread and smeared on the honey cream cheese. This was really good as a snack or even breakfast.

First, she arranged thusly (above). I said it looks like packman. So she rearranged below.

Here I ask my wife to take over.

This recipe is from a book entitle “Quick Breads” by Beatrice A. Ojakangas
Ingredients:
2 cups All Purpose flour
2 cups cornmeal
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
3 cups buttermilk
1/3 cup karo syrup + 1/3 cup dark molasses (This combination is what Pa Dutch recipes call “table molasses”. I did this to tone down the molasses flavor to accommodate my husband who is not overly fond of it. If you really like molasses then just use molasses and no Karo for  2/3 cup molasses).
2/3 cup raisins.

In a large mixing bowl stir the flour, cornmeal, baking soda, and salt until blended. Combine the buttermilk and molasses. Add the liquid ingredients to the dry. Mix until well blended. Add the raisins. 

This bread is steamed. Generously grease the ramekins as well as the aluminum foil used to cover them. I prepared the large pot we used for sous vide and the Dutch oven by putting egg steaming trivets from the instant pot on the bottom of each and filling with enough water to come half way up the side of the ramekins (see pictures below).  I used 2 large ramekins and 4 medium sized ones. The two large ramekins plus an optional smaller one could fit in the large sous vide pot. The 4 smaller ramekins, however, also fit well in the Dutch oven so just the large ramekins could go in the sous vide pot. I spooned the batter into the ramekins until they were 2/3 full. I tightly covered them with aluminum foil held on with a rubber band then put them in the steaming pot, water gently boiling so the water came 1/2 the way up the ramekin. I covered the pot and steamed them for about 45 minutes or until a tooth pick came out clean. I removed the bread from the ramekins and let it cool. I sliced the small round loaves in 1/2 inch slices and slathered them with cream cheese with honey mixed in.

This is a very hearty flavorful bread with a bit of tang from the molasses and the buttermilk. The texture is pleasingly dense but moist. The cream cheese offsets the tang and is a perfect accompaniment.