Three appetizers お通し三種

This is another one of my otoshi お通しappetizer threesome. We got small covered containers and divided wooden trays  at a small shop in the Nishiki Market 錦市場 in Kyoto 京都 some years ago. Square and pentagonal bowls were from Gumps in San Francisco. This was one of the warmer days so far this year and for the first time, we were having this outside.



When you open the lids, it is ”fermented squid and guts” or shiokara 塩辛 . When written out in English it sounds very un-appetizing but it is one of the delicacies perfect for sipping sake and my wife's favorite. This one came frozen in a small pouch and. It is not as salty as ones we had before and was quite good.

The left is wakame seaweed 若芽 and cucumber salad (dressed with sushi vinegar, sesame oil and light colored soy sauce), the right is onsen egg 温泉卵 (cooked in my Sous Vide machine), dressed with ponzu sauce and garnished with finely chopped scallion and salmon roe or ikura いくら.



These are the ultimate for sipping sake. We gazed at our plum blossoms, tasting a little of these appetizers and sipping more sake.

Duck fat roasted potato 究極のオーブンポテト

My wife is always in pursuit of the "ultimate" fried potato without actually frying. She has been making "oven fried potato" which is very good but a bit of work. This time, from the same source, "Cook's illustrated",  she saw a recipe for "duck fat roasted potato" with rosemary. Duck fat is not something we regularly stock. When I cook duck breast I usually mop up the fat with paper towels but last time, I poured the rendered duck fat into a small ramekin since the amount of rendered fat was unusually large. I did not have any intention of saving it but my wife apparently covered it and placed it in the refrigerator. So when she came across this recipe, it was like the stars and the moon were lining up properly and she had to try it. The below is the final product; nice thick crispy crust and soft center with nice rosemary flavor.



Unlike myself, my wife measures, weighs and follows the recipe precisely. She had to scale the original recipe to 2/3 but the amount given below is from the original recipe.

Ingredients:
3 1/2 lb Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 1/2 inch pieces (#1)
              Kosher salt and pepper
1/2 tsp   baking soda
6 tbs      duck fat
1 tbs      chopped fresh rosemary

Instruction:

1. Preheat oven to 475F with a rimmed baking sheet on the top shelf. (Note to self: when using the dark nonstick rimmed baking sheet reduce the temperature to 400 and check periodically to see about adjusting the time.)
2. Add 10 cups of water to a pot and boil over high heat, add potatoes, 1/3 cup of salt and baking soda. Return to a boil and cook for 1 minute. Drain potatoes. Return potatoes to pot and place over low heat. Cook, shaking pot occasionally, until surface moisture has evaporated, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat. Add 5 tablespoons duck fat, 1 teaspoon of salt, mix to coat (#2).
3. Remove (hot) baking sheet from the oven spread potato in one layer and bake for 15 minutes (3#, surface is showing just few brown spots).
4. Using metal spatula, turn the potatoes over (#3), the bottom developed nice brown crust. We made sure that the pale side of potatoes is down and brown side up #4) and baked 12-15 minutes longer. While potatoes roast, combine finely chopped rosemary and the remaining 1 tbs duck fat in a bowl.
5. Spoon rosemary mixture over the potatoes (#5) and using spatula turn.  Bake an additional 3-5 minutes (#6). Season with salt and pepper as needed.

This is less work than oven-fried potato and the result is better. Because of the par-boiling and baking soda, a thick crust forms during baking and the fresh rosemary adds a nice flavor. Although the entire kitchen smelled of duck fat, we did not taste not much "duck" flavor on the potato.

We may try this with just olive oil or with bacon dripping. Another alternative may be using white potato instead of Yukon Gold. In any case, this is indeed a fantastic oven potato. The leftovers heat well in the toaster oven.

Pork and Potato 豚肉じゃが

Nikijaga 肉じゃが is traditionally made from thinly sliced beef and potato which I posted some years ago. As usual, when I prepared pork tenderloins, I hand-chopped trimmings into ground pork. After consulting with my wife, I made two dishes; mapo tofu 麻婆豆腐 (which I will posted soon) and nikujaga made from ground pork. Either using beef or pork, this is a Japanese version of meat and potato comfort food.



For green, I added steamed green beans at the very end and the noodle is "shirataki" 白滝 or threads made of konnyaku コンニャク (devil's tongue).



The amount of ingredients is arbitrary but these are the estimates.

Potato: 4 large Yukon Gold potato, peeled, eyes removed and cut into 1 inch chunks.
Onion: 2 medium, cut into small wedges.
Pork: about 150grams or 1/3 lb (you can use whatever amount and also thinly sliced rather than ground).
Green beans: Either boiled or steamed, still crispy.

Seasoning:
Dashi broth: 250-300ml or about 1 cup, just enough to cover the ingredients. I used one I previously made from a dashi pack (Bonito and kelp).
Sugar: 1 tbs
Mirin: 2 tbs
Sake: 2tbs
Soy sauce: 2-3 tbs, I added in several increments as I tasted.
Vegetable oil: 1 tbs

In a pot, I added the vegetable oil on medium flame. When the oil was hot, I added the ground pork and cooked until the color chanced (2-3 minutes) and it was done. I added the onion and sautéed until soft (3 more minutes), then added the potato, mixed and added the broth to cover.  When the broth came to a boil I turned down the flame to simmer and added the seasoning. I added the soy sauce in several increments tasting the broth each time. I cooked with a lid on for 20 minutes until the potato was cooked through. I removed the lid and reduce the broth a bit, gently shaking the pot for 5-7 minutes. I added a small amount of soy sauce to give a fresh taste and then added the green beans. After a few more minutes, I turned off the fire and served warm.

I think this is perfect for a small dish served with either wine or sake. I must say, I rather like the pork version of this dish since that is how my mother used to make it and I generally like pork more than beef.

Miso-marinated grilled cod たらの味噌焼き

This was the last dish I made from a filet of cod we got the other day. This is miso-marinated cod with miso-based sauce on the top. This was a one-plate dinner one weekday evening. I broiled the cod after I smeared on the miso-based sauce but it did not char much. Maybe I should have used my kitchen torch.



I served the cod with an eclectic assortment of accompaniments; wedge of skinned tomato (seasoned with salt and olive oil), Cauliflower a la Montoparnasse, steamed green beans with sesame sauce, braised cabbage with onion and lemon* and butter-soy-sauce fried rice with parsley.

* recipe from Cook's illustrated.



Miso marinated cod:
Cod filet; four small filets for two
Miso marinade: red miso, mirin, and sake (2:1:1 ratio), mixed and then placed in a Ziploc bag with the fish filets, the miso marinade to coat all surfaces.

I marinated the cod for 2 days (It should be marinated at least 24 hours) in the refrigerator.

Before cooking, I removed the fish and scraped off the excess miso marinade, washed in cold water and then pat dried (to prevent scorching during cooking and to reduce the saltiness from the marinade. I could have gotten the same effect by separating the marinade from the fish by using a layer of cheese cloth).

I baked the marinated cod in the toaster oven preheated for 375F for 10 minutes on a metal grate over an aluminum foil covered drip pan. (The small footed grate raised the fish slightly above the bottom of the pan and prevented the fish from being steamed/boiled instead of baked).

Meanwhile, I made a miso-sauce for the fish by simply heating the remaining miso marinade and added yuzu juice and more mirin to make it a  looser consistency. I heated the sauce while stirring to thicken it just a bit. I added frozen yuzu peels at the end. I spread the miso-sauce over one side of the fish and switched the toaster oven from bake to broil to make the miso sauce slightly browned and fragrant (it did not char/brown as much as I wanted under the broiler of the toaster oven).

The cod had a nice flakey moist texture and the miso marination and miso sauce both added nutty, salty and sweet flavors and a hint of Yuzu citrus.

So this is a rather complete meal with protein, vegetables and starch.

Savory egg custard with garlic chives ニラ入り茶碗蒸し

This is "chawan mushi" 茶碗蒸し with "nira" garlic chives. When I served garlic chive egg drop soup ニラのかき卵汁 and told my wife that eggs and garlic chives go well together, she suggested I make chawan-mushi with garlic chives. In the interim, I also served "Nira tama" ニラ玉, which is scrambled eggs with garlic chives (I did not take pictures) one weekday evening further reinforceing that this combination was indeed made in heaven. I finally made the garlic chive chawan mushi one weekend.



The garlic chives floated on the surface  but green and light yellow color contrast is nice.



The egg mixture was made the same as before. We tasted this hot first off the steamer. It was nicely creamy as you can see below.



I added shrimp (one cut into two pieces per serving).



I also added small pieces of chicken tenderloin.



Few days later, I served this cold with topping of ikura salmon roe and real wasabi.



Both cold and hot versions were good but I preferred the hot version. The distinct garlic chive flavor was much muted in the cold version. The silky egg custard and the garlic chives are indeed good combination. This time I first soaked the chicken pieces in sake and then coated with potato starch before putting in the chawan-mushi. This made the chicken moist and tender and better than just putting it in "naked".

The below makes 6 small bowls.

Egg mixture:
As before, I used 3 large eggs beaten and added 3 times the volume of seasoned dashi broth. If the eggs are 150ml then the seasoned broth should be 3 times the volume, i.e. 450ml. Dashi broth was made from a "Bonito and kelp" dashi pack. I seasoned it with mirin, light colored soy sauce and "shirodashi" 白だし. Seasoning is always tricky for chawan mushi. Too much will be "too much" especially when eating hot but when you serve it cold you need a bit more seasoning. I err on the side of under-seasoning.

Garlic chive:
The amount is arbitrary. I harvested young tender shoots from our herb garden and cut in 1/4 inch.

Shrimp:
I used 6 shell-on frozen shrimp, thawed in running water and then salted.  I cut in two pieces length wise.

Chicken tenderloin: I used two tenderloins. I first removed the tendon/sinew and sliced it on the bias. I salted lightly and soaked it in sake for 5-10 minutes. I blotted excess moisture and thinly coated it with potato starch or Katakuri-ko 片栗粉.

I first added the shrimp and chicken into the cups and poured in the egg mixture through a fine meshed strainer into 6 cups. I then added the chopped garlic chives.

I placed the 6 cups in a steamer (my electric wok) and steamed them on a constant low steam for 20-30 minutes (first picture).

My wife really liked this, either hot or cold. She thought the chicken was really moist and tender which I agree. This was a very successful dish.

Red snapper in aspic 鯛の煮こごり

I did not make this dish, the dish made itself! We recently had simmered red snapper. (This was the second time we had this dish in recent weeks). We could not finish one whole fish so my wife carefully removed the meat sans bones and placed it in a sealable container, poured in the left over simmering liquid and placed the container in the refrigerator. A few days later, when I tried to serve this leftover fish, I was pleasantly surprised to find this dish; simmered red snapper aspic. In Japanese, this type of jell or aspic is called "nikogori" 煮こごり. When I was a kid this usually happened in winter when our kitchen was very cold and the leftover simmered fish (I remember it was often sand dabs) was covered with its own natural aspic. The best way to eat this was to put it on the top of hot steamed rice. The aspic started melting immediately and seasoned the rice nicely. When I saw what had happened with the red snapper that came out of our fridge, I quickly changed gears and served this eclectic dinner featuring red snapper aspic as the main dish. The rest of the plate came from whatever we had in our refrigerator.



Here is a close-up of the aspic. Although we did not intend to make this dish, this was nicely done.



I made Chinese -style "nibuta" 煮豚 sometime ago and last weekend I also made "ajitsuke tamago"  味付け卵 and served that.



I also served a small slice of Chinese simmered pork and cucumber/onion salad with fresh dill dressed in rice vinegar and Greek yogurt (my wife made the Greek yogurt by draining regular yogurt through cheese cloth in the fridge overnight).



Ajitsuke tamago:
This is the most common topping for ramen noodle. I made soft boiled eggs from home pasteurized shell eggs using my sous vide machine. I then soaked the eggs in the simmering liquid of the pork and let it sit for a few days. This process seasoned the eggs as well as changed the consistency of the egg yolks. I could have made "softer" boiled eggs but this was just fine.

I also served steamed green asparagus that I prepared the prior weekend with mayo. Since we did not have a time to prepare rice, I microwaved leftover rice and garnished with dried ao-nori. By the time, we were ready to eat, the rice was not hot enough to melt the aspic but it was good. Since the seasoning was on the light side, this worked better. This was a rather well balanced eclectic meal

Fish sausage 魚肉ソーセージ

When I was growing up in Japan, we did not know about artisanal sausages which recently have become very popular and readily available in Japan. So, when I was a kid, "sausage" meant this cheap "fish meat" sausage which came in a plastic tube casing in a red cellophane wrapper. I never liked this as a kid but it was very popular as it was easy, cheap, and ready-made source of protein.

One weekend, my wife accompanied me to the Japanese grocery store. When she does, she looks around and always find something I did not see or something I would generally not thought of buying. She found this fish sausage and asked me what it was. I had forgotten about this for many years but since my wife never tasted it I proposed we get it.



That evening, I made this small dish as an appetizer for the red wine we were enjoying. I simply cut the sausage on a slant and sautéed them in melted butter. I was not sure how salty the product was so I did not season it. I served it with mayonnaise mixed with soy sauce and Japanese red pepper flakes. I served sautéed broccoli (previously blanched) and wedges of skinned tomato which were seasoned with salt and pepper.



The one I remember from my childhood was "Maru-ha" まるは meaning a letter "ha" or "は” within a circle but it appears to have changed its logo. This one was made by "Maru-chan" まるちゃんwhich is famous for instant ramen noodles.



Inside is a fish sausage in a transparent plastic tube exactly as I remembered when the cellophane wrapper is removed.



As you can see below, it is nondescript, homogenous and apparently artificially colored (to emulate real meat sausage??) looks almost like plastic.



The taste? Meh! I did not like it as a kid and I do not like it as an adult. Spongy texture without much of any taste, just a mayonnaise delivery system if you have a side of mayo. But this was something from my childhood and finally my wife had a chance to taste it which made it worth getting. She agreed with my assessment (despite the expert sautéing job I did). We did not eat the rest of sausages in the package.