Moon gazing 10/6/2025 月見

Mid autumn full moon or “Chushu-no-meigetsu 中秋の名月” happened this year (2025) on October 6. As usual, to celebrate, I made “moon gazing” mochi rice balls “Tsukimi-dango 月見団子”. In addition, I re-discoved that we had a rectangular plate that was decorated with hand-drawn “Kikyo 桔梗” flowers (shown in the picture below). Kikyo* is traditionally associated with “Tsuki-mi” because its buds are round like the moon and it’s blue flowers are star shaped. So this was the perfect plate on which  to serve the “Tsukimi-dango”. By the way, the autumn full moon this year was spectacular. It was a super moon.(This seasonal moon is called the Hunter’s moon in U.S.). It was big and bright even when in mid sky. Unfortunately, it was also a late riser this year not reaching its Zenith in the mid sky until 3AM.

*I learned that the English name for this flower which is balloon flower or “Platycodon”

As usual, we warmed up these dango in the microwave oven and served it with the traditional “mitarashi sauce” as a dessert.

This year, we also celebrated using the special sake glasses we got from Kitaichi Glass 北一グラス in Otaru 小樽, Japan. These may not be meant for drinking cold sake but for us they are perfect. As you can see they are nice deep blue with the traditional Japanese symbols for the moon; rabbits, falling stars and cherry blossom motifs on the sides.

The other side has a round transparent moon-like window from which you can see the rabbits with the shooting star on the other side of the glass. 

And rabbits with cherry blossoms.

And in the bottom of the glass you can see the rabbits running aroung the “moon”. (Too cute) 

While folks in the west typically refer to the figure seen in the moon as the  “man-in-the moon” according to Japanese folklore the figure is referred to as a rabbit pounding mochi. Therefore, rabbits are the symbol associated with the moon. So we thought it was entirely appropriate to use these glasses depicting rabbits for the moon gazing occasion.

Mid-autum Full Moon Gazing 月見中秋の名月

Full moon on September 29 (Harvest moon) in Japanese is called “Chuu-shuu-no-meigetsu” 中秋の名月. Traditionally, the Japanese admire (gaze) at the full harvest moon and that “celebration” is called “Tsuki-mi” 月見. Some plants such as pampas grass or “Susuki” ススキ and balloon flower or “Kikyou” 桔梗 (shown below) are associated with tsuki-mi. As for the food associated with Tuskimi it is usually something spherical in shape i.e. resembling the full moon. The most famous is “Tsukimi-dango” 月見団子 which I’ve made several times before, using “mochiko” flour and tofu. I made it again this year. The picture below shows the “tuskimi-dango” in front of  a “Tenugui” Japanese washcloth depicting “Chuu-shuu-no-meigetsu” and balloon flower. This is the prototypical scene depicting tsukimi.  Unfortunately, it was cloudy on the 29th and we could not see the moon. We had to be satisfied with gazing at the full moon on the wash cloth.

It is the tradition for tsukimi to make a pyramid using 15 of the dango (9+4+2) . I made 20 dango. We couldn’t resist and tasted 2 with “Mitarashi sauce”.  These type of dango are called “Mitarashi dango” みたらし団子 which I posted before. Nonetheless despite this early indulgence we still had enough dango to make the appropriate pyramid (shown below).

Just for convenience, I duplicate the recipe we published previously.

Ingredients:
for the Dumpling:
"Mochiko" rice flour 100gram
Sugar 2 tbs (30gram)
Silken tofu about 1/2 (gradually added until right consistency is attained)

for Mitarashi sauce:(all weighed since amounts are rather small).
Soy sauce 40ml (or grams)
Sugar 60 gram
Dashi broth 100ml (or grams)
Mirin 15ml (or grams)
Potato starch 15 gram

Directions:
For Dumpling:
Add the flour and sugar in a bowl (#2).
Add a small amount of the tofu (#3) at times to the dry ingredients and mix by hand.
Add more tofu until the dough forms but is still soft (#4) (The Japanese instructions say "texture of an ear lobe).
Using a small ice cream scoop, make small balls (need to make at least 15, I made 19).
Cooking them in boiling water until they float on the surface and cook additional 3 minutes (#5).
Put cooked dango in ice cold water for few minutes and drain (#6).

The best way to enjoy the dango is “Mitarashi dango” みたらし団子. We microwave the dango and heat up the sauce (I use a small pan, if it gets too watery add more potato starch slurry). Coat the heated dango and just for show, I skewer the three dango together (see below).

This year, I also made “nitsuke” 煮付け or “nikkorogashi” 煮転がし(left in the picture below) using frozen “Sato-imo” 里芋 taro which we got from Weee. I usually do not use frozen taro but I was curious enough to get it some time ago. It is very interesting that the frozen taro are perfectly spherical. When I was looking through the Japanese cooking site “e-recipe”, one of the dishes they listed for “Tuskimi” was this dish since frozen sato-imo is spherical and an appropriate representation of the moon                                     for Tsukimi’ 

Although we could not see the full moon on the 29th, we could see the near-full moon on the 27th. Not really a good picture but it was beautiful.

The dango were a real treat. The ones made with rice flour had a very pleasing texture. They were fluffy and soft. The mitarashi coating was a perfect combination of slightly sweet and slightly salty. The taro dango were a nice addition. They were soft but not mushy and perfectly seasoned. What fun. 

Harvest “Juugo-ya” moon gazing 10-1-2020 十五夜月見団子

This year "Harvest moon" was October 1 which is also Japanese "Juugoya" or 15th nights* for moon gazing. Unfortunately the evening of October 1 was raining and we could not see the moon but the next night, it was clear with some haze in the sky and we took these pictures.

*something to do with 15th night of the month in Luna calendar.

Since October 1 was a Thursday and a week day I  couldn’t make tuskimi-dango 月見団子 that day,  so I made them the weekend before. (Using the exact same recipe as last year). I also made the same mitarashi みたらしsauce. 

Here are 15 spherical "dango" piled up in a 9-4-2 configuration.

Since I made this a week ago and even though they were kept in a sealable container in the refrigerator, they dried up and got hard.

Using a microwave safe silicon container, I added the sauce and “dango” and microwaved it for 30 seconds or so. It became as soft as when I made it and the sauce also got warmed up.

We enjoyed this as an ending “shime” dish or dessert, whichever applies. The dango had a very pleasing soft creaminess and the sauce added some additional sweet saltiness. Very nice. 

Kitsune Udon and Inari-sushi 狐うどんといなり寿司

When our refrigerator went kaput, some of the Japanese frozen items thawed almost completely. One of them was "Abura-age" 油揚げ or deep fried tofu pouches. These were rectanglar-shaped full sized ones called "Ganko-oyaji-no-abura-age" がんこおやじの油揚げ (meaning "stubborn old man's abura-age*"). I decided the best way to save them was to cook them in soy sauce and sugar or/or mirin which is called "Ama-Kara" 甘辛 meaning "sweet and salty". Once cooked, they would last longer and also could also be used to make "Inari-sushi" 稲荷寿司 (right below)  and "Kitsune udon" 狐うどん (left below) which I did a week or so later and served as a lunch one weekend. I served Inari-sushi (or more accurately, Inari-zushi) with cucumber "asazuke" 浅漬け and sweet vinegar-dressed ginger (store-bought).

*This is a Japanese way of saying that this product was made with a stubborn determination of an old man who upholds a tradition of making the best product without any compromises.

Classically, Kitsune Udon is simply topped with seasoned abura-age and chopped scallion (this is a famous dish in Osaka 大阪 and they typically used the green part of the scallion as opposed to Tokyoites who uses only the white part. Since I made home pasteurized eggs in that morning, I added a poached egg as well. That makes this as "Kitsune Tsukimi udon" キツネ月見うどん. "Tsukimi" 月見 means "moon gazing" and the egg yolk is equated with the moon.

Cooking and seasoning Abrura-age:
2 rectangular abura-age, thawed, intentionally (or otherwise), if frozen, cut in half (square).
Place the abura-age in a colander and pour boiling water over it to remove any excess oil (this process is called "abura-nuki" 油抜き).
Place four squares in a single layer in a pan and add the seasoning (Japanese broth 100ml, mirin 20ml, and 20ml, add sugar if you like it sweet).
Place a "otoshi-buta" on top and simmer for 15-20 minutes until only a small amount of seasoning liquid remains on the bottom. Then let it cool.

I did this some days prior to using them and kept them in a sealed container in the "back-up/emergency" fridge.

Making "Kitsune udon"
Soup: Heat Japanese broth made from a dashi pouch (kelp and bonito), seasoned with sake, mirin and light colored soy sauce. I seasoned  it lightly and added the seasoned abura-age pouch to warm. The seasoning from the pouches leak out into the soup and when I tasted it the soup was just right.

Udon noodle:
I had cooked dried thin udon noodle. I warmed them up in boiling water for 30 seconds, drained and put it into bowls.

I poured in the warm soup, topped it with the seasoned abura-age, poached egg and thinly sliced scallion.

Assembling Inari-zushi (four square pouches):

Filling the pouches with cooked rice: the simplest would be sushi rice, which is what I basically used,  but the rice can be mixed with other ingredients such as seasoned gourd peel or "kanpyo" カンピョウ and shiitake mushsooms 椎茸. The variations are endless. I used frozen white rice (this happened to be rather expensive Japanese grown "Koshihikari" コシヒカリ rice). I microwaved it to warm it up and dressed it with sushi vinegar. I did not mention it earlier but among the thawing victims of the refrigerator's demise were two small packages of small whitebait fish called "shirasu" しらす. (At the same time I rescued the abura-age I braised these fish in mirin, sake and  soy sauce until almost dry and placed them in a small sealed container in the "emergency" fridge.) I mixed this seasoned "shirasu" into the sushi rice mixture. I prepared the pouches to be filled with the rice by pressing the abura-age pouches between two identical plates to remove any excess liquid. I then stuffed them with the rice mixture. Since the seasoning of the pouches and "shirasu" were essentially similar, this combination worked very well.

I cut the stuffed pouches in half to serve. Here you can see small fishy mixed into the rice.

For impromptu lunch with "Inari" theme**, this was quite good.

** Digression alert!:
"Inari" 稲荷 is a Japanese deity (or one of many Japanese gods) who promotes industrial and agricultural prosperity. There are some 30,000 Inari shrines that exist throughout Japan. These Inari shrines are guarded by statues of foxes (wearing red bibs for some reason). Although the fox is often confused to be the God, it is not. It is simply the Inari god's messenger. In addition, these foxes are said to be very fond of "abura-age". So, any dish made with abura-age is called "Inari" or "Kitsune (fox)".

This picture was taken by my wife when we were traveling in Kyoto 京都 and visiting  "Fushimi Inari Taisha" 伏見稲荷大社 in 2015. This is famous for numerous red torii gates 赤鳥居. This is the main or "parent" Inari shrine among the many in Japan.

When we visited there, it was very crowded. Later, we learned that visiting there at night may be less crowded.

Moon gazing and "Tsuki-mi" dango 2019 月見と月見団子

This year's "15th night moon" or "Jugoya" 十五夜, which corresponds to the "Harvest moon" in the U.S., occurred on September 13 which was a Friday--Friday the 13th (!). Since it was a work day there was no time to make ”tsukimi dango" 月見団子  to celebrate the beauty of the moon. In addition it was cloudy, and the moon did not make an appearance so "tsukimi" or "moon gazing" was not happening. The next day,  I made the tsukimi dango in the morning so it was ready. In anticipation, we waited for moon rise. As you can see from the picture below the sky was crystal clear and the moon rose like a large round silver platter, even though it was a 1 day waning moon...Tsukimi was on.

We had our "tsukimi dango" with "mitarashi" みたらし sauce as a desert. I never thought (especially when I was in Japan), I would ever make this dish myself but this is very good and the sauce really makes it.

Speaking of moons, in addition to the real moon, this year we had the pleasure of viewing moon flowers blooming, after a long absence, in our garden--the white flower shown on the right in the picture below. They bloom in the evening and glow softly in the ambient light as it gets dark withering in the morning light. In contrast this year we also had morning glories called "asa-gaoa" 朝顔 (morning faces) in Japanese, (shown on the left in the picture below). The morning glories and moon flowers have a counter cyclical blooming cycle. The morning glories bloom in the morning when the moon flower is fading and fade in the evening when the moon flower is blooming. The result is that there is always a flower in bloom.

Digression alert: Many years ago we used to grow moon flowers and morning glories in our side yard. We planted the seeds in the ground and the plants climbed up strings reaching the trellis which screened one side of the deck from sight of our neighbor's backyard. We had enough sun for these plants to cover the entire side of the deck trellis. As shown in the picture below we had a glorious wall of morning glories providing a beautiful privacy screen.  

Even more impressive were the large moon flowers, some as large as small plates, which mysteriously opened in the evening.  Some survived until morning so we could see both flowers at the same time as shown in the picture below. While enjoying the soft glow of the moon flowers one evening we saw something big flying and sounding like a hummingbird feeding on the nectar of the moonflower. It was way too late for a hummingbird to be about so what in the world was this creature? Turns out it was something call a hummingbird moth. They fly like a hummingbird and drink nectar like a hummingbird. What a treat! We had no idea something like this even existed but we were privileged to have the opportunity of see one.

For various reasons we have not been able to plant these flowers for many years. This year my wife found a space along the fence that she thought might work. So we planted the seeds, strung the string and waited and waited and waited. Finally in late August the first moon flower made its appearance. The picture above is of this year's crops. They were rather pathetic compared to the our old morning glory and moon flower display, but this is quite an improvement especially since we did not have them for many years.

So back to the subject at hand; tsukimi. It may be difficult to celebrate tsukimi on the exact day of "Jugoya", but this was certainly a fine second best. The homemade dango were much better than the ones that we have bought commercially. They are very tender in texture with a pleasant rice flavor. The absolutely crucial ingredient to this dish is the sauce. It adds a burst of salty sweetness that is irresistible.

Moon gazing "Tsukimi dango" dumpling 月見団子

My wife really likes the moon (and rainbows), especially a full moon. She always looks for it in the sky. So, she immediately loved  the idea of Japanese "Tsuki-mi" 月見 moon-gazing or moon-viewing,  "Chushu-no-meigetsu" 中秋の名月 or "Juu-go-ya" 十五夜 . It refers to the full moon which falls on August 15 according to the Japanese lunar calendar and on September 24 according to the  Gregorian calendar. It is the full moon nearest the autumnal equinox which incidentally also falls on September 24 this year. This moon gazing has something to do with a harvest festival in Japan and in the west this moon is called the harvest moon.  In any case, we decided to cerebrate for the harvest moon and Juu-go-ya moon. My wife even collected "Furoshiki" 風呂敷, Japanese wrapping cloth, and "tenugui" 手ぬぐい, Japanese hand towels, with moon-gazing motifs on them. As shown by the furoshiki below, these usually include the full moon, pampas grass or "Susuki" ススキ, and rabbits gazing at the moon. Rabbits are generally associated with the moon in Japan because according to Japanese folk lore supposedly derived from a Buddhism story, a mochi-pounding rabbit lives on the moon, rather than a man. So in Japan you have bunny-in-the-moon instead of man-in-the-moon. Since the creature living on the Japanese moon pounds mochi, this may explain why the traditional food to accompany the fall moon-gazing is a round mochi ball or dumpling made of rice flour called "Tsu-ki-mi dango" 月見団子 Also because the full moon occurs on the 15th night of August "Juu-go-ya" according to the Japanese lunar calendar, the dango are presented in three layers of 9+4+2 totaling 15 commemorating the 15th night full moon. A plate of these mochi dumplings is shown next to the rabbits in the picture below. The plate of the dumplings I made is in the forefront of the picture.

The last time I made this with mashed potatoes with a center of cheese but this time, I wanted to go traditional and made dango using rice flour. With my wife's help, I used one of her collection of furoshiki as a background for the picture.

Below is a picture of the guest of honor; the moon. I took this picture several days before Juu-go-ya (September 24). It was almost full moon. On the 23rd and 24th, it was rainy and cloudy and we could not see any moon.

I made tsukimi dango a few days prior. After displaying the dango, I put the dango on skewers and warmed it up in the toaster oven and coated it with "mitarashi" sauce. This way of serving dango is called "Mitarashi dango" みたらし団子. It was good (especially the sauce) but the dango themselves were not soft or warmed through. So the next day, my wife tried microwaving the dango with the sauce. That method worked much better and the soft elastic texture came back like the ones freshly made.

I have never made this from rice flour. I looked for the recipes on line and decided on making it with rice flour and silken tofu (the alternative is using just water). This recipe variant came with the claim that the dango stays soft even cold.

At that point, I was not very familiar with different kinds of Japanese rice flours* (see footnote). Because rice contains practically no gluten and gluten-free diet is popular in US, even if you do not have gluten allergy or Celiac disease, rice flour is readily available. Actually, my wife used it in her baking and she provided me with the rice flour she had used.  This is called  "Sweet white rice" flour from Bob's Red Hill. This is made from short grain Japanese eating rice grown in California (Probably "Kokuho Rose"). The flour looked a bit coarser than what I remember but I made dango from it. After boiling the dango for a few minutes, they should have floated to the surface but they never did. Although I boiled it for almost 20 minutes, they never became soft and  not quite edible especially after they were cooled. I then learned about the different kinds of  Japanese rice flours*.  Since I did not have the time or energy to go to our Japanese grocery store to look for the appropriate rice flour, I turned to Amazon and got "Mochiko"餅粉 meaning "rice-cake flour" which is milled in California by "Koda farms"  (Japanese name!). This is  made from "mochi gome" 餅米.  Mochi-gome* is a type of  rice specifically grown for making mochi 餅 or other rice dish such as "seki-han" 赤飯 (#1 in the composite picture below).  My thinking was this flour (by name and by Japanese association) must be the better flour to make dango.

Ingredients:

for the Dumpling:
"Mochiko" rice flower 100gram
Sugar 2 tbs (30gram)
Silken tofu about 1/2 (gradually added until right consistency is attained)

for Mitarashi sauce:(all weighed since amounts are rather small).
Soy sauce 40ml (or grams)
Sugar 60 gram
Dashi broth 100ml (or grams)
Mirin 15ml (or grams)
Potato starch 15 gram

Directions:
For Dumpling:
Add the flour and sugar in a bowl (#2).
Add a small amount of the tofu (#3)  at times to the dry ingredients and mix by hand.
Add more tofu until the dough forms but is still soft (#4) (The Japanese instructions say "texture of an ear lobe).
Using a small ice cream scoop, make small balls (need to make at least 15, I made 19).
Cooking them in boiling water until they float on the surface and cook additional 3 minutes (#5).
Put cooked dango in ice cold water for few minutes and drain (#6).

*Footnote: The below are what I gleaned from the Internet. There are some conflicting information. It appears that there are three major kinds of rice flour. These are made from two different kinds of short grain rice; one is "eating rice" called "Uruchi-rice" うるち米 which contains polysaccharide amylose, another is called "mochi-gome" 餅米 which contains two kinds of polysaccharides amylase and amylopectin. Amylopectin gives a lot of sticky elastic texture when cooked. Rice cake or Mochi is made from this rice.

1. Shira-tama-ko 白玉粉
Made from milling washed uncooked mochi-rice with water, After the starch settles down, it is dried, very fine, mixed with water and then boiled. It makes a delicate soft dumpling with slippery surface which remains soft even when cooled.
2. Mochi-ko 餅粉
Made from milling  washed and dried uncooked mochi-rice, strong rice flavor and makes elastic dumpling by mixing with water and then boiled
3. Jou-shin-ko 上新粉
Made from eating "uruchi" rice, washed, dried, and milled,  mixing with hot water, steamed, and pounded to make elastic mochi like dumpling.

Tuskimi-dango is ususally made from either shira-tama-ko or mochi-ko. The red mill rice flour is similar to #3.  The way I made the dango using this flour was not proper or this flour is too coarsely milled. The ones I made from Mochi-ko, the dango was much better and close to commercial "dango" my wife and I are familiar with.

Potato balls for Harvest moon じゃがチーズもち

There are certain things in nature that my wife particularly likes; among them, are rainbows and bright Moons. Every time conditions are right to form a rainbow i.e. the sun comes out while it is still raining, she goes out to look for one. If she sees one she takes the time to admire it until it disappears. In the evening, if the sky is clear, she is on the look out for the shine of the Moon. So, when she learned about "Chu-shu-no-meigetsu" 中秋の名月 and the round shaped food that goes with "Tsuki-mi" 月見 or moon gazing, it was a done deal. Tsuki-mi took its place on our calendar. I suppose, making "Tsukimi dango" 月見団子 is most traditional but it is not particularly interesting to me (it is a sweetened rice flour dumpling--not one of my favorites). So when I saw this mashed potato ball recipe with cheese, there was no question that this was the one I would make. The picture below was taken before frying. I just wanted to make the correct 15 ball pyramid (3x3 base, 2x2 middle and two on the top) indicative of "ju-go ya*" 十五夜 meaning 15th night in a month before one potentially exploded while being fried.

*The moon that is the focus of tsuki-mi is the full moon before the fall equinox. In the U.S. that moon is called the harvest moon. According to the lunar calendar the 15th day after the new moon would be the full moon. Thus, "ju-go ya" means a full moon but using the Gregorian calendar, obviously, the 15th day of the month may not be the full moon. This year, the full moon before the equinox occurred on the 15-16th night in September. We could not see the moon, however, because of the clouds.

The original recipe was to deep fry the potato balls but I sauteed some, which were served immediately, in butter with a bit of soy sauce poured on top at the end.

Mashed potato, melting cheese, butter and soy sauce is a combination that cannot go wrong in my experience. 

This is inside of the ball showing the melting cheese--yum. I used smoked Gouda. I poured hot melted butter over the baby arugula.

Ingredients:

Potatoes, 3 medium.

Potato starch. 2-3 tbs

Melting cheese (I used smoked gouda), cut into small cubes

Salt

Directions:

1. Boil the potatoes with skin-on on salted water until cooked.
2. Remove the skin and mash them. 
3. Add the potato starch and salt, mix well until elastic dough forms
4. Using a small ice cream scoop, I portioned out the mashed potato (#1). (requires at least 15 to make a appropriate presentation. I made 20 just in case a few broke during the cooking).
5. I encased a cube of cheese (#2) with the mashed potato and rolled it into balls between my palms. (#3). 
6. I kept these potato balls in a sealed container in the refrigerator until I cooked and served them (#4).

The original recipe suggested either deep frying or baking them.  I thought if I fried them they would just taste like potato croquettes with cheese in the middle so I decided to sautee them in melted butter.  I kept the balls moving in the pan so that all the surfaces were cooked and browned. At the very end, I added a light colored soy sauce and kept moving the pan until all the surface was coated.

Certainly, this was rather good. The molten cheese center was too hot initially but cooled down quickly. Although the Harvest moon was hidden behind clouds, we enjoyed this "Tsukimi" food or moon-gazing food.

P.S. The next evening, we tried baking the potato balls. The cheese melted and seeped out leaving a hollow potato shell in a puddle of melted cheese. Sauteing would be the preferred method of cooking. 

Sous vide and home pasteurization of shell eggs スービイと自家製滅菌卵

Please also see the second version of home pasteurized eggs.

Salmonella contamination of hens eggs and chicken meat doesn’t appear to be a big problem in Japan. Raw and undercooked eggs and chicken meat are frequently consumed on such items as raw egg on rice (卵かけ御飯), moon-gazing soba noodle (月見そば) and "tataki" or " sashimi" of chicken tenderloins (とりわさ). In the US, salmonella food poisoning is a serous problem. Eating any product with raw egg in it is risky. Common sources of salmonella food poisoning are home-made mayonnaise, Caesar salad dressing, and raw cookie dough as well as sunny-side-up and soft boiled eggs with runny yolks, Some states (New Jersey being one) even outlawed restaurants from serving sunny-side-up eggs for a while. Certainly nobody in their right mind would consume raw or under cooked chicken meat.

If we want a dish with raw eggs or runny yolks, we use pasteurized shell eggs which we posted before. Low temperature pasteurization for shell eggs is a patented process by Dr. and Mr. Cox. Only one producer (Davidson's safe eggs) is using this patented method.

Recently I acquired a very reasonably priced home sous vide machine. There are at least three products in this category and after reading the review I settled for "Anova" sous vide machine (see below).



The submersible part contains a heating coil and agitating propeller under a metal cover with vertical slits and the  top has a good sized touch sensitive color LED screen for setting the temperature and time. It does quite well heating up the water, maintaining the temperature and providing good circulation. I double checked the temperature using a digital thermometer and found the temperatures registered in the water with the sous vide was within 0.7 F of the temperature registered on the thermometer so it was quite accurate. I am not sure, however, which one is more accurate. In addition the temperature was even thorough out the water bath.



The first thing I wanted to try was to pasteurize shell eggs at home. This has to be done at a  temperature low enough that the egg white and yolk don’t coagulate but high enough and long enough to reduce the salmonella to safe levels. I read about low-temperature pasteurization of shell eggs including the patent filing of Dr. and Mr. Cox and Food Lab's guide to slow-cooked. sous-vide-style eggs. Some suggestions regarding "home pasteurization of shell eggs" I found on the web appear to have no scientific basis and did not sound like they would accomplish adequate pasteurization at all.

I determined that  at 130F for more than 2 hours (2 hours 20minutes to be exact in the eggs I “pasteurized” but 3 hours will be on the extremely safe side) would be the most reasonable to accomplish the goal of pasteurization. But I do not have any microbiological proof to confirm this. So I have to add a word of caution that the results of this method are not guaranteed--use at your own risk.  If you are interested how I came up with this conclusion, please read below*.

I sous vided shell eggs directly out of the refrigerator for 2 hours and 20minutes at 130F. I thought that the long time at low-temperature would eliminate possible temperature gradient issues. I immediately soaked the sous vide eggs in ice cold water for 10-15 minutes, dried the surface and placed them in the refrigerator. My wife suggested that I mark the eggs before putting them with the others in the fridge. She helped me to write "P" for "pasteurized" on the eggs using a pencil (below). (She told me that when she was young this was a method her mother used to distinguish hardboiled eggs from raw ones—its no fun cracking the last egg in the house to make a cake only to discover it is hardboiled!)



When I cracked open the home pasteurized eggs after a few hours of refrigeration, the yolk and white were liquid and looked about the same as an unpasteurized egg.



The second egg (front) had a very slight cloudiness (Which I see occasionally even in the commercial pasteurized shell eggs) but was still liquid.



I scrambled these two eggs and made a stuffed omelet. It cooked exactly like any un-pasteurized egg but I did not have to worry about having undercooked egg in the omelet. Its texture and taste were fine as well.

* Sous vide low-temperature pasteurization of shell eggs.

Dr. and Mr. Cox patent application is a good example of lawyers writing a scientific/technical article. It is next to impossible to figure it out. This patent  contained not just pasteurization of shell eggs but other egg products, scrambling eggs in their shells (why do you need to do this is beyond me),  and a method of replacing naturally occurring gasses in shell eggs with mixture of  sterile air and gasses to prolonged the shelf life. This is a chart they included in the application.



I interpreted this chart this way; at 129.5F (54.4C), the egg white did not coagulate ("irreversibly damaged") at least up to 120 minutes but the yolk temperature reached 54.4C after 105 minutes and maintaining this temperature for 5 minutes would be "lethal" (for salmonella, I assume). At 140F (60C), eggs can be sterilized a bit shorter than 30 minutes  but before this happens "irreversible damage" of egg white will happen. Any other temperatures in between, pasteurization can occur before the egg white starts to "thicken before irreversible damage" but you need to stop heating before 120 minutes to accomplish pasteurization without "irreversibly damaging" the white. To my dismay, the document did not specify the initial temperature of the eggs in this experiment.The initial temperature could make a difference in the amount of time needed to eliminate a temperature gradient and have the yolk achieve a temperature high enough to be lethal to salmonella.

In any case, from this chart and Food Lab's guide to slow-cooked. sous-vide-style eggs, I concluded at 130F, you could keep the shell eggs for a long time (at least 2 hours to be safe) without coagulating the egg white or egg yolk and obtain the adequate pasteurization at the center of the egg yolk. I think that low temperature and long heating time should eliminate any variables stemming from the initial temperature of the eggs and temperature gradient.

Now that I think I can safely produce pasteurized eggs, I will still buy Davidson's Pasteurized eggs but, just in case, we now have a back up plan. More sous vide cooking is coming.

P.S. After receiving a comment from an anonymous reader, I am adding the new references below. Dr. Schuman's article has soild microbiological proof, albeit only 57C and 58C were tested in details. As per this paper, to be absolutely safe (non-detectable salmonella or total bacteriocidal level), 57C (134F) for 75 minutes is recommended. I am not sure if egg white will become cloudy at this temperature,  butI will try and let you know. The below is from the reference 2 below.

1. Schuman JD, Sheldon BW, Vandepopuliere JM, and Ball HR Jr. Immersion heattreatments for inactivation of Salmonella enteritidis with intact eggs J Appl Microbiol. 1997 Oct;83(4):438-44.
   
2.  USDA Document "Pasteurization of Liquid Egg Products and Shell Eggs"
   

Udon noodle in hot broth かけうどん

This is again not blogworthy but a perfect ending dish or light lunch. I found a unopened package of dried udon うどん noodle in the pantry. The date of "best used by" had expired by few months. I thought I better use it quickly.

Udon is a type of Japanese noodle made of wheat flour. The ones we can get here is either frozen or dried. Of course, you could make it from scratch if you so prefer. I have posted hand-made udon by Chef Kitayama of Sushi-taro. 

Udon can be eaten many ways; simmered in broth ("Nikomi" udon 煮込みうどん), in hot broth ("Kake" udon かけうどん), cold or hot with a dippin sauce ("Zaru" udon ざるうどん or "Kama-age" udon　釜揚げうどん), cooked in a small individual earthen pot ("Nabeyaki" udon 鍋焼きうどん) etc.  Depending on the topping, it may be called differently such as Kitusne udon きつねうどん (with deep fried tofu pouch), Tanuki udon たぬきうどん (with bits of deep fried tempura without other items), "Tsukini" udon 月見うどん (with a raw egg), "Karei udond" カレーうどん(with curry sauce) etc. 

 The day I made this I had a leftover broth which was made with a dashi pack in the refrigerator. I added mirin, sake, and soy sauce to taste (I am not sure about the amount but I had about 3 cups of broth and I added 2 tbs each. And after tasting it I added more soy sauce).

For basic "kake" udon, only chopped scallion will be the topping but I added whatever I had. I had sake steamed (microwaved) chicken breast, frozen fish cake or chikuwa 竹輪, and "kyo-b(f)u" 京麩. "Fu" 麩 is made of 100% wheat gluten, so if you have gluten sensitive enteropathy, Celiac disease, or otherwise avoiding gluten, this is not for you. For that matter, udon noodle is not for you either. In any case, Kyoto is famous for decorative "fu" called "kyou-bu". It comes dried. I just dump these into the seasoned broth to just warm them up, hydrate or thawed and warm up. I also added chopped (on bias) scallion and Japanese 7 flavored red peper powder 七味唐辛子. Since I had a package of "ajitsuke nori" 味付け海苔 or seasoned nori, I also lined them up at the edge of the bowl. Just before eating, you can put it on the top. This is to prevent the nori to be totally soaked and soft before eating.

This was just OK. the broth was a bit too lightly seasoned. The kyou-bu was apparently too old and had a stale taste. The udon noodle and other items were just fine.

Mini Udon Hotpot ミニ鍋焼きうどん

This is another one of those dishes with which you conclude your Izakaya feast. Last time we were in Kappabashi district in Asakusa 浅草合羽橋, we found this mini-donabe ミニ土鍋, measuring a bit less than 5 inches in the outside diameter, in one of numerous restaurant supply shops which line the streets there. Since we are not big eaters, this is a perfect size for us to have a very small individual nabe dish. Tonight, I made a tiny "nabeyaki udon" ミニ鍋焼きうどん. 

Udon noodle is a thick (as compared to soba), white Japanese noodle made of wheat flour, which can be made at home (I have not tried it), bought frozen or dried. I almost exclusively use dried udon noodles just because it will keep a longtime in the pantry and is convenient. You can get quite a number of different kinds of dried udons from thin to thick. You could use udon like soba (especially thin ones). If you serve it in a warm soy sauce flavored broth, it is called "kake udon" かけうどん and by adding different toppings, it changes its name (this is exactly same for soba). For example, if you add a whole (raw) egg, it is called "Tsukimi Udon" 月見うどん or moon gazing udon (equating an egg yolk for a full moon). You could eat udon with a dipping sauce, called "Tsukeudon" 付けうどん, which is a rather recent invention. One dish in which you almost exclusively use udon noodle but not other noodles is this dish "nabeyaki udon" or udon hotpot. If you make it in a standard individual sized pot (see picture below), it is a classic whole-meal-in-a-pot dish.

I had already cooked udon (I prepare it as per the package instruction, it will keep several days in the refrigerator. This was leftover from making a tarako pasta dish). I place enough to fit in this small donabe pot (probably 1/4 of one standard serving). I use a bottle concentrated noodle sauce diluted in hot water to taste (use hot water to dilute as per instructions on the bottle label but make sure you taste it and adjust the strength). Of course, you could make this from scratch using dashi, mirin, sake, sugar, and soy sauce. I poured the diluted sauce to just cover the noodles. I added fresh shiitake mushroom (use small ones), two shrimp (I used frozen ones), greens (spinach is traditional but you can used anything such as snow peas, green beans, even green asparagus etc.  I used baby arugula here. You could pre-cook them before putting in or, like I did, just put it in over the top of the noodles and put on the lid. After it wilts and decreases in volume, you can rearrange the greens) and scallion sliced on an angle. Put on the lid and simmer for 10 minutes on a very low flame (be careful, it will boil over very easily). I finish the dish by adding half a beaten egg, put the lid back and let it stand for 5 minutes until the egg sets. 

Serve it with Japanese seven flavored red pepper powder or "shichimi togarashi 七味唐辛子 (red cylinder in the picture above). The sake cup is hand cut crystal by Kitaichi glass in Otaru, Hokkaido 北一ガラス、小樽、北海道. When you pour sake into this cup, the cherry blossoms etched on the bottom "float". Since Cheery trees have been in blossom in Washington DC, this is perfect.

Comparison of a standard one-person donabe on the left (about 7-8 inches in diameter) and our mini-donabe on the right.

Soba noodle in hot broth かけそば

This is again is a dish with which to finish your home Izakaya feast. This is a very simple soba noodle dish. We had this when I made "age-dashi tofu". This was a perfect dish to make since I wanted to finish the broth I made for the tofu dish. I simply dilute it further to the strength appropriate for this soba dish. Soba そば 蕎麦 is very popular even here in the U.S. and it is easy to get high-quality dried noodles. Of course you can make the noodles yourself. We have a soba cook book which describes how to make soba from buckwheat flour. I tried it once but, it is too difficult to make for an amateur like me and the dried variety is just fine. 

There are two major ways to serve Soba; cold soba with a dipping sauce or "mori soba" もりそば and warm soba in broth or "kake soba" かけそば. There are many variations of both types of soba preparation depending on the condiments or toppings. For example, if you add tempura (usually shrimp), it is "tempura soba", if you add an egg  it is "Tsukimi soba" 月見そば meaning moon-gazing soba since the egg yolk looks like a full moon. If you add seasoned fried tofu pouch (abura-age), then it is called "fox" soba きつねそば. You may ask why this is called "fox" soba. "Inari" shrine 稲荷神社, one of the many Japanese shrines, considers the white fox as a messenger of the deity or god it enshrines. Later, probably through misunderstanding, people started believing that the fox was the deity itself. It is also believed that the fox deity loves "abura-age" or deep fried tofu pouch. Thus, any dish which includes "abura-age" has "kitusne (fox)" or "inari" somewhere in it's name. Another common soba topping is "tenkasu" 天かす or small bits of cooked tempura batter that you scoop up while you are making tempura (this can be stored frozen for later use), then, it is called "tanuki" soba たぬきそば. There is a play on words here. "Tanuki" is a Japanese badger or more like a raccoon which is always compared to "kitsune" or fox since both animals are believed to use "magic" (mostly transmogrification) to mislead humans in Japanese folklore. It is said that "kitsune" is always very cunning and successful in her magic but "tanuki" is always comical and failing in his magic. For the name of the noodle dish, "ta-nuki" also means just temprura batter without other ingredients of tempura  - "ta" means "other" and "nuki" means "missing" or "without".

We occasionally go to a small but elegant Japanese restaurant called "Makoto"  in Washington DC, where they serves an excellent course menu おまかせ in the "kaiseki" style 懐石 or 会席. After 7-8 small exquisite dishes, the last dish they offer is soba in warm broth. There are some choices of toppings and we always go for "sansai" 山菜 or mountain vegetables. The soba dish I made here is a simplified version of this. I just put sliced fresh shiitake mushrooms in the broth and cooked it for a few minutes. I poured the hot broth over cooked soba noodles in a bowl and finished with chopped scallion and nori. If you like, sprinkle on the Japanese 7 flavored red pepper "sichimi tougarashi"  七味唐辛子.