Canned Mackerel, Cabbage and Egg Stir-fry サバ缶とキャベツの卵炒め

We found a few cans of mackerel (Japanese.style cooked in water) which were approaching the BUB (best-used-by date) tucked away in the pantry. We bought these and other canned items during the height of COVID when protein shortages started to materialize. Those times have thankfully passed so I decided I could use the “emergency” mackerel to make a small appetizer. I have made and posted a few dishes made from canned mackerel. This is not particularly original but it worked well. Since I recently got fresh quail eggs, I used them to make miniature fried eggs and topped this dish. As a result, in the picture the mackerel part of the dish, is a bit obscured by the fried quail egg.

The below is the picture of another serving a few days later. I added boiled quail eggs which had been marinated.

This is based on the recipe on line (in Japanese).

Ingredients:
One can of mackerel in brine or “Saba-no-mizuni” 鯖の水煮
3-4 leaves of cabbage, thick vein removed and cut into bite-size square
2 shiitake mushrooms, stem removed and sliced (optional)
1 egg
1 tbs vegetable or olive oil
salt and pepper

Directions:
Make scrambled egg and set asdie
sauté the cabbage for few minutes
Add the mackerel and stir for few more minutes
Plate and top with the scrambled egg
Season with salt and pepper

This is an ok dish to use up the canned mackerel…actually tasted pretty good. It was even better the next day with the marinated quail eggs.

“Canned mackerel and hanpen” Satsuma-age like fish cake 鯖缶とはんぺんの薩摩揚げ

Canned mackerel or “saba-kan” 鯖缶 is a very popular canned fish item in Japan and is readily available in the U.S. Upon inspection, of the canned mackerel in our pantry, I realized that the “Best used by” date had just passed on one of the cans. (I thought canned food lasted forever but that is apparently not the case). I needed to use this can fast and I then saw a perfect  recipe of fried fishcake on the Japanese website I follow using canned mackerel and “Hanpen” fishcake はんぺん.  This type of fishcake is called “Satsuma-age” さつま揚げ, which is a very common dish served grilled in Izakaya. Although I attempted to make Satusma-age from scratch, it was not quite authentic due to the lack of appropriate kinds of fish. The current version is interesting because instead of using ground fish meat “surimi” すり身 which is the authentic way to make Satuma-age this recipe used a mixture of canned mackerel and hanpen.  I served this with the usual grated ginger and soy sauce. It does not have the texture of authentic Sastuma-age but this was good; crispy outside and tender inside with the firmer texture of edamame and carrot. It all worked. The inclusion of ginger and deep frying toned down the otherwise strong flavor of the mackerel. This is a perfect dish with sake.

Ingredients:
One can of boiled (Mizu-ni 水煮) mackerel (190 grams with the liquid, about 150 grams fish meat), drained and crumbled
2 hanpen steamed fish cakes, frozen, thawed (240 grams), cut into small pieces.
1 tbs potato starch
1 tsp sugar
30 grams julienned carrot(1/3 of medium carrot), boiled or microwaved for 30 seconds
60 grams cooked and shelled edamame
1/2 tsp grated ginger

Peanut oil for shallow frying

Directions:
Mix all the ingredients until completely incorporated (The original recipe placed everything in a plastic bag and hand massaged it to make the dough, I did not have the patience to do that so I used an immersion blender, #1).
Mix in the edamame and carrot and make flat ovals (I made 8) (#2)
Add the oil to the frying pan to the depth of 5mm and heat to around 350F and shallow fry for 3 minutes (#3)
Turn over and fry the other side for 3 minutes (#4)
Drain and serve immediately (or once refrigerated, toaster-oven to warm).

This is not Satsuma-age but it is a nice fishcake and we really like it. Since the ingredients (hanpen and canned mackerel) are easy to get, this is a good and easy dish to make.

Hanami 2021 with healthy 4 Japanese appetizers 花見 ２０２１

This year the cherry blossoms were early. We read it was the earliest full bloom of cherry blossom in Kyoto in 1,200 years. We have three cherry trees in our backyard; two were here when we moved in and one we planted 30 some years ago which was destroyed by a Nor'Easter in 2018. We replace this with a small cherry tree and it has grown but is still small. Usually these trees bloom sequentially rather than simultaneously but this year all three bloomed with some overlap in timing. So we had a few days when all three trees were at various stages of blossom and we enjoyed "Hanami" 花見. One day was warm enough for us to sit outside on the deck. Other days were cold or rainy so we enjoyed Hanami from inside. 

In the early morning on March 28 it was still a bit dark but through the cherry blossoms I spotted the full moon in the sky. This was the "Paschal moon"; the first full moon after the spring equinox. It is the moon on which the date for Easter is based i.e. Easter is the first Sunday after the Paschal Moon. True to form, Easter is next Sunday 4/4/2021. This moon is also known as "Worm moon". So named, supposedly, because worms start to emerge as the ground warms up. 

The picture below is of the cherry tree we planted in 2018 to replace the one that was destroyed in the nor’easter. It has grown a lot in the last 3 years but another 3 years will add to its role for hanami. Still it provided viewing enjoyment.

These are four appetizers I served one hanami evening. Before these dishes, we had Tuna sashimi made with frozen yellow fin tuna block from Great Alaska Seafood キハダマグロ.  As usual, I served it in marinated "Zuke" style ズケ; the surface charred with a kitchn blow torch in "Tataki" style たたき. I also  made a portion of it into imitation  “negitoro” ネギトロ,  We then had cold chawanmushi with marinated Ikura salmon roe 冷製茶碗蒸し. The four dishes shown below are the last dishes I served. They are vegetable rich and, hopefully, healthy items. 

This is a sort of salad made with dried persimmon 干し柿と大根の甘酢和え.  A recipe online was the inspiration of this dish but I did not follow the recipe. Besides the dried persimmon, which is cut into small bite sized pieces, I added daikon, carrot, sweet onion in sweet vinegar with added ground sesame and a splash of sesame oil. I garnished with roasted cashew nuts (or walnuts but the cashew happened to be available). The sweetness of the dried persimmon and the sweet vinegar dressing went well together. The dried persimmon got really soft and over time basically dissolved into the dressing.

This dish was a variation of the dish I made before from canned mackerel 鯖の水煮缶詰と大根. But in addition to daikon, I added cabbage and tofu and blanched broccoli just before serving.

This is “Hijiki” seaweed with carrot and deep fried tofu ひじきの炒め煮, exactly the same as I made before.

The last is a classic “mishime” 煮〆. It is simmered vegetables seasoned with soy sauce, mirin, and dashi broth. It includes shiitake, carrot, gluten cake “hanabu” 花麩. The rectangular pieces are freeze dried tofu or “shimidoufu” 凍み豆腐. I cooked this separately with much sweeter broth (I guess in Kyoto style). You cannot see it but there is renkon  on the bottom.

At this point, we were well fed and watered and gazing at the beautiful cherry blossoms. We were just enjoying existence.

Persimmon, smoked oyster shira-ae 薫製牡蠣と柿の白和え

Actually, this was inspired by a dish we had at Sushi Taro Omakase and then by a variation that was in the 2020 osechi box and was called "kaki kaki kunsei" (Smoked oyster and persimmon). In Japanese, persimmon is "Kaki" with flat intonation and oyster is "Kaki" with an accent on "ki", so this was a sort of play on words. The quality of the smoked oysters and persimmon are important. The oysters used by Sushi Taro were smoked in-house and were wonderful. The persimmon was perfection. The osechi version of this dish (picture below) had a light olive oil-based dressing and was also extremely good. In the case of the dish I made, the importance of the quality of ingredients was driven home in spades. Both the oysters and the persimmon were not really great but the basic recipe is good so after several iterations we finally came up with a dish that was not bad.

We found a package of "kaki" persimmon 柿 from California at Whole Foods. It looked like "Shibu-gaki" 渋柿 meaning "puckering persimmon". But these must have been treated. There are multiple ways this could have been done. For example it could have been treated with carbon dioxide since this was apparently commercially done. (The "at-home" treatment to reduce the puckering effect is usually to wait until the persimmon is completely ripe and becomes somewhat gelatinous). The advertisement on the package stated "you can eat it as it is" and showed a cherub of a boy eating it like an apple.

Since the persimmon we bought were supposedly ready to eat, we tried it. It was still hard. Although it was not puckering, the "persimmon" flavor was not as pronounced as we would have liked. As the first iteration of trying this persimmon,  I made "shira-ae" 白和え a very common small dish which I blogged previously.

For the next iteration I served the persimmon with canned smoked oysters as my attempt to emulate what we had at Sushi Taro. Unfortunately, the canned smoked oysters which came from China and were bought at our local grocery store (shown as the bottom can in the picture below) were, as far as we were concerned, not suitable for human consumption. The oysters were fragmented, almost black in color and tasted terrible. They completely ruined the dish.

For the third iteration I used smoked canned oysters in olive oil from Whole Foods (shown as the top can in the picture above). (We didn't look to see where they came from). These were infinitely better than the previous batch. They were plump, whole and had a nice smokey flavor. This dish is shown below.

The strong smokey taste of the oysters and the sweetness of the persimmon' with the gentle sesame punctuated flavored dressing of tofu worked well.

This was one of three small starter dishes I served one evening with cold sake.

Of the other two dishes, the left most is fried salmon in sweet vinegar 鮭の南蛮漬け. I garnished it with sushi vinegar dressed cucumber キュウリの酢の物.

The center dish is my usual mackerel simmered in miso サバの味噌煮.

Ingredients:
One persimmon peeled and cut into bite sized pieces (below left).
One can of smoked oysters in olive oil.

For the Shira-ae dressing 白和え (below right)
1/4 silken tofu, wrapped in paper towel and weighted down to remove extra moisture.
1 tsp miso (or to taste)
1/4 tsp roasted sesame seeds, ground in a Japanese suri-bachi すり鉢 mortar.
1/4 tsp of light colored soy sauce

Directions:
Add all the shira-ae ingredients to a Japanese suribachi mortar and grind them until smooth (above right). Taste and if need adjust the seasoning.
Dress the persimmon pieces and top with the oysters. (I blotted off any excess oil and cut the oysters into two pieces.

Compared to the first try with oysters, this second try was much better. (As good as it was it did not hold a candle to the Sushi Taro version).  I do not think this type of persimmon is particularly good for this dish. I prefer another kind of non-puckering persimmon called  "ama-gaki"甘柿. It has a better texture, is sweeter, and has a stronger distinctive persimmon flavor. In any case, the contrast of the flavor of the persimmon with tofu dressing and smokey oyster flavors worked well enough.

Natto and mackerel donburi 鯖味噌納豆丼

When I made natto with canned mackerel in miso sauce, the recipe suggested that this dish would be good as a drinking snack or on rice. So, I used the leftovers to make this donburi for lunch. I used frozen cooked rice which we always have in our freezer. (When we cook rice, we usually have leftovers so we freeze individual sized portions in small Ziploc bags with the date written on the outside. Then when we need rice we thaw it for 30 seconds in the microwave which makes rice to be separated but still semi-frozen. At this point, I put the rice in the bowl).

I also added precooked green beans (I usually  boil a package of green beans and keep it in the refrigerator). I microwaved it with a lid on (this donbri bowl has a lid) until the rice was warm (it comes out with a consistency and taste close to freshly made).

I also added a sunny -side-up fried egg (the egg yolk still runny).

This was quite good. I should have made more sauce.  I am sure freshly cooked rice would have been better but even with frozen rice, this was quite enjoyable.

Natto with canned mackerel in miso sauce 納豆さば味噌

I saw this recipe using canned mackerel in miso sauce サバの味噌煮 and natto 納豆.  Since I had one can of mackerel in miso sauce and one package of frozen natto, I decided to give it a go.  We had this with cold sake.

Since I made this from my memory of the recipe. When I finally found the recipe again I saw I had modified it a bit.

I garnished this dish with chopped chives.

Ingredients:
Mackerel in miso sauce, one can (#1).
Nattou, 1 package (#2), the original calls for 3 packs but that would have been too much (especially for my wife).
Miso paste, 1 tbs
Sugar, 1/2 tbs
Sake, 2 tbs (this was not in the original recipe).

Directions:
1. Add the mackerel with its sauce to the pan (#3) and add the miso and sugar (#4).
2. Add the sake and stir mashing the fish into small pieces (#5).
3. When the mixture starts to simmer add the nato (#6).
4. Keep stirring until the liquid evaporates and the desired consistency is attained (about 10-15 minutes on low flame).

The original started with dark sesame oil and finely chopped ginger. It also included the addition of Japanese dried red pepper which could have added more complexity to the flavor. While I was cooking the mixture with the kitchen exhaust fan on high, my wife came back in from the deck where she had been sitting and told me it smelled pretty bad out there (apparently all the smell of natto was expelled into the outside air over the deck--sorry neighbors). I served this warm with a garnish of chopped chives. This was ok but the smell of natto was still there albeit faint. My wife suggested it would probably be pretty good served cold which may reduce the smell a bit.

Braised canned Mackerel in brine with Daikon 大根と鯖の水煮

We really like mackerel simmered in miso sauce. I usually make it from fresh mackerel but it is a bit of work. The other  day when we were at our Japanese grocery store, I bought canned mackerel in miso sauce or "saba-no-misoni" サバの味噌煮 and mackerel in brine or "saba-no-mizuni" さばの水煮. We had the canned mackerel in miso sauce which was pretty good but as per my wife, she thought mine was much better. In any case, I decide to use up the remaining canned mackerel. I came up with this dish made with diakon and canned mackerel which is inspired by a recipe I saw on line. I also served seasoned kelp or "konbu-no-tsukudani" 昆布の佃煮 since I made it as the by-product kelp after I made Japanese dashi broth from kelp and bonito flakes.

I garnished it with green part of scallion finely chopped.

Here is another serving.

This kelp dish was not as strongly seasoned since we usually eat as a drinking snack rather than with rice.

This is canned mackerel in brine. I just noticed "Taste of Japanese Mom's cooking" on the can.

This is how it looked. The fish was cooked in brine with bone-in but bone is soft (probably pressure cooked). I tasted it and it was rather salty so I adjusted my seasoning accordingly.

Ingredients:
Diakon, 1/4, peeled and cut daikon in quarters lengthwise and sliced it1/4 inch thick. This is called "icho-ni-kiru" イチョウに切る since the shape is similar to the "icho" or ginko leaves.
One can of mackerel in brine.
Oil 2 tsp (I used light olive oil)
Soy sauce
Mirin
Scallion 2, finely chopped

Directions:
1. I added the oil and daikon pieces to the pan and sautéed for several minutes.
2. I added the mackerel and the brine to the pan.
3. Using a bamboo spatula, I broke the mackerel in small pieces and cooked on medium heat for 5-10 minutes.
4. I tasted it and added 2 tsp of light colored soy sauce and 1 tbs of mirin (the seasoning needs to be adjusted depending on how salty the brine is).
5. I kept cooking until the daikon was soft and the liquid reduced in half.

This was much better than I expected. The combination of daikon and fish was excellent. This is a perfect snack with sake. Between this dish and the seasoned kelp, the sake went down well.

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).