Monday, July 17, 2023
New Divided Plate and 9 Otoshi Appetizers 9つ仕切り皿にのせたお通し9種類
In the 1st row, left, is a sugar snap in salt broth スナップ豌豆の塩びたし. We used to be able to get decent sugar snaps from our regular grocery store but recently, we have had to go to gourmet grocery stores to get decent ones This was crunchy, sweet soaked in salt dashi broth.
In the 1st row, center, are cucumber onion salad and stir fried shirataki, jalapeño pepper and enoki mushroom.
In the 1st row, right, is the cheese curd my wife made but instead of jalapeño pepper, she added “Yuzukosho” 柚子胡椒, soy sauce and cream. I added a dab of yuzukosho on the side to provide an added “schmear” of yuzukosho flavor if desired.
Tsukune on a slice of lotus root 蓮根つくね.
“Uni-shuto” ウニ酒盗 from Maruhide. As I stated before this is the best uni aside from fresh uni. I served it with cucumber and perilla leaves.
I refried the shrimp head kara-age which was part of take-out from Tako Grill a few days ago. Shrimp head has a good amount of meat and is very crunchy but you have to be careful how you eat the prickly legs so as to not injure your mouth.
Recently, we discovered that Whole Foods carries fresh quail eggs. We really like boiled quail eggs. Although we can get canned boiled quail eggs, boiled eggs prepared from fresh quail eggs are much much better. I served it with marinara sauce, basil and sprinkle of salt.
Blanched asparagus with sesame mayonnaise. The dressing is a mixture of mayo, Japanese sesame paste or nerigoma 練りごま and soy sauce.
Salmon salad. My usual. The dressing is mixture of mayo, Greek yogurt and Dijon mustard.
We really like our new plates. If I serve 9 appetizers for two of us in small bowls, we have to wash a total of 18 bowls but here we had to wash only two plates. We really like the many small dishes we had here; true Izakaya-style.
Tuesday, August 30, 2022
Seawater Uni, uni shuto and fresh myoga 海水ウニ、ウニ酒盗、茗荷
Although there is nothing new here, it is not common to have a new crop of myoga 茗荷 harvested from our own garden (just started), fresh salt water (seawater) uni “Kaisui-uni” 海水ウニ and uni-shuto うに酒盗 from Maruhide 丸秀, all available in the same time. Myoga is best enjoyed fresh and the season is rather short and requires some effort to harvest. So, I served a small dish of myoga with cucumber, and wakame as well as two small dishes of each kind of uni. For the occasion, I pulled out the small lidded containers we purchased in Nihiki market, Kyoto 京都錦市場 some years ago.
Tuesday, August 9, 2022
Watari bune Daiginjo 渡船純米大吟醸
This sake “Watari bune, junmai daiginjo” 渡船純米大吟醸 was a gift from a friend for a recent occasion. This is a really great sake with a slightly effervescent feel and fruity, crisp but very complex flavors. This should definitely be drunk cold. This sake is brewed by “Fuchu-homare” 府中誉 which is located in Ibaragi prefecture 茨城県. The sake rice or “sakamai” 酒米 used for this sake is also called “Watari bune” which is supposedly a very rare near-extinct sake rice which relatively recently has been revived. The famous and most popular sake rice “Yamada nishiki” 山田錦 is reportedly a descendant of this rice. Also the name “Watari bune” 渡船, which means a “ferry” or “ferryboat”, is very fitting for sake from Ibaragi which is known for Tone river 利根川 and its estuaries criss crossing the flat delta before pouring into the Pacific ocean.This area also contains large lakes. (Such areas rich in water ways and lakes are called “Suigou” 水郷). Such topography would require use of ferries i.e. “Watari bune” to navigate the water ways.
Tuesday, March 15, 2022
Uni shutou with salmon roe 雲丹酒盗いくら入り
Friday, February 4, 2022
Uni appetizers two kinds 雲丹の前菜2種
As I mentioned previously, Maruhide 丸秀 is the best place to get consistently high-quality uni and uni products. I wanted to get some fresh uni for the New Year. Although I checked the web site regularly fresh uni was not available for some time. So when I saw it became available recently, I could not resist and ordered fresh uni (both regular and in salt water or "Kaisui-uni" 海水うに). I also ordered some "uni shuto " ウニ酒盗 which is preserved and frozen and lasts longer than fresh uni. This is second best (compared to fresh uni) but among the class of "preserved" uni, this is the best by far. We had an uni tasting the evening the uni arrived. It consisted of regular uni and uni in salt water. We also included some ikura like we did before. We finished the evening with a small uni and ikura "donburi" rice bowl 雲丹いくら丼.
The next evening, I made a small uni appetizer dish. Although it is hard to see in the picture, I put cubes of avocado dressed in lemon juice in the bottom of the bowl then topped them with uni, "kinshi-ran" 金糸卵 golden thread egg and nori strips or "kizami-nori" 刻み海苔. I added wasabi-jouyu わさび醤油 (mixture of wasabi and soy sauce just before serving). Since the texure of avocado resembles fatty tuna sashimi, this combination went very well together. The avocado really complemented the uni.
Monday, January 10, 2022
New Year 2022 Jan 3 Salmon three ways 一月三日鮭尽し
We have been enjoying the items from the Sushi Taro osechi box. After indulging in a serving of wonderful dishes from the box which go perfectly with sake, I served this plate as the “second course”. The red and white fish cake or "kouhaku kamaboko" 紅白蒲鉾 (upper left in the picture) came from the osechi box (they were the last four slices). I made a deep pocket in each and stuffed the pink one with the leftover Maruhide sea urchin shutou 丸秀雲丹の酒盗 topped with a dab of wasabi. I topped the white one with Ikura marinated in soy sauce イクラの醤油ずけ topped with strips of nori.
The remaining items were all different salmon dishes which I prepared for New Year. Starting from right upper, clock wise, is salmon nanban 鮭の南蛮漬け、Russian marinated salmon 鮭のロシア漬け, and finally salmon kelp roll 鮭の昆布巻き. These three salmon dishes all have different textures and flavors. For the salmon nanban, the salmon was dredged in flour and fried before being marinaded in sweet vinegar which gave it a bit firmer texture. The Russian marinated salmon started out as thin strips of raw salmon marinated in sake, vinegar and oil without any sweetness. This year I something different. I added dijon mustard to the marinade and emulsified it with the “motor boat” emersion blender. As a result the oil didn’t separate or solidify. Also, the salmon did not “over cook” and had a lovely soft texture. Finally the salmon kelp roll was simmered for sometime in seasoning broth, producing a yet different soft and moist texture. These are wonderful to enjoy with sips of sake.
Friday, January 7, 2022
Sushitaro Osechi 2022 寿司太郎お節 2020
This is a picture of the upper box. I am not going into the details but its all good stuff. Many items are hidden behind and under the items on the top.
This was what we ate from the box the evening of January 2. I just served whatever caught my eye. This round was mainly items that go well with sake.
In this three compartment plate, I served (from left to right) “Mushi uni” 蒸し雲丹 or steamed sea urchin, “Uni shutou with yuzu-chilli” ウニ酒盗 柚子胡椒 from Maruhide 丸秀 and “ikura shouyu-zuke” いくら醤油ずけ soy marinated salmon roe. I added wasabi-soy sauce to the steamed uni and made a cucumber boat to contain the ikura. All perfect for sake.
After these, we had simmered vegetables (again lightly warmed in the microwave) and finished with a mayo-biscuit my wife made that afternoon (subject of another post).
Monday, December 20, 2021
Riviera Seafood Club sashimi リビエラシーフードクラブからの刺身
This is my on-going effort to find retailers where I can get sashimi-grade fish. As I have mentioned previously some of the on-line places like "sushi at home" or "fish for sushi" which sold sashimi fish have come and gone. The good and reliable Catalina Offshore Products is still going strong and we still get occasional shipments of sashimi fish from them. When it comes to Uni うに, Maruhide 丸秀 is the place to go. We have gotten frozen blocks of sashimi-grade tuna from "Great Alaska Seafood" and although it is yellowfin tuna, it is better quality than the frozen yellowfin tuna blocks we got from the Japanese grocery store. Recently I became aware of another vendor called "Riviera Seafood Club" (according to the website it was launched in July 2019, and is family-run). I finally decide to get some akami 赤身 (8oz), chutoro 中トロ (8 oz) and hamachi はまち(8 oz) sashimi from them. Unlike some of the other vendors we have tried, they offered smaller portions which is nice and makes it easier to manage use of the shipment. The chutoro block had one half almost akami and another half of toro. I divided up the block and served the toro part the evening we received the sashimi. The reaming akami was used to make imitation negitoro and cubes of avocado and tuna next evening. The hamachi still had the skin attached which needed to be removed. The picture below shows the serving of the various sashimi.
I think this is a good alternative source of sashimi. It came exactly as they suggested (ordered on Wednesday and arrived on Friday). The only odd thing was that there was no communication. No order confirmation email or shipping notice aside from a text message I received from FedEx concerning expected delivery date.We may try this place again. It is good to know we have more than one place where we can get sashimi.
Sunday, December 5, 2021
Hiyaoroshi #2 and Uni tasting 冷やおろし#2、海水うに
This is a continuation of our exploration of the “Hiyaoroshi” sake ひやおろし we recently acquired (with a complementary uni tasting on the side.) As I mentioned before, this sake is seasonal; only available in autumn and until recently, the only way to enjoy this seasonal sake was to visit Japan in autumn. This fall, however, thanks to Tippsy sake, we could enjoy hiyaoroshi here in U.S. So far, we’ve tried 5 different hiyaoroshi sakes. All of them were “Junmai” class but the aging process really “kicked them up a notch” making them taste superior to regular Junmai sake. All the hiyaoroshi we tasted had rich savory and complex flavors with some fruity floral characteristics. We tasted (from left to right) three sakes; “Ooyama”, “Gokyo” and “Kisoji”.
1. Ooyama 大山 (meaning “big mountain”) is from Yamagata prefecture 山形県 (which is famous for many excellent and “cult” sakes including “Juyondai” 十四代). The brewery is “Katou Kahashirou” 加藤嘉八郎酒造. This sake is called “Tokubetsu junnmai” 特別純米. “Tokubetsu" means “special”. My understanding is that this designation does not have an official definition, but usually the rice is polished to 60%. This is the same level of polishing as “Ginjou” 吟醸酒. So, by definition, this type of “Tokubetsu junmai” could also be sold as “Ginjo”. It is up to the brewer to decide what to call it. Junmai is usually characterized by robust and rich flavors while ginjo is characterized by more elegant crisp fruity flavors. So, depending on the aim of the particular sake, the brewer could call it either way. We really like this sake. Quite rich and dry with some acidity.
Saturday, February 27, 2021
One spoonful appetizers and more
Friday, June 19, 2020
Yellowfin tuna from Great Alaska Seafood 冷凍キハダ鮪
We really enjoyed this. This is about the same as the frozen yellowfin tuna blocks we buy at our Japanese grocery store. It may be slightly better since it seemed to contain less water. (After thawing, not much water came out). The textures and taste are about the same. The "Zuke" and "imitation negitoro" preparations made very good variations.
Saturday, April 11, 2020
Hanami 2020 #3 with Uni and tuna from Catalina 3日目の花見、カタリナの刺身
The uni was nicely formed (not fragmented or dissolved). It was a nice orange color. Its been a while since we had uni from Catalina. We have been getting some uni from Maruhide but this one was pretty good.
I enjoyed half as sashimi and prepared the other half as "Shio uni" or salted uni. I read that this was a very usual preparation in Aomori prefecture 青森県 which is the norther most part of the main land Japan, "Honshu"本州. Most of the recipes (all in Japanese) call for 100 grams of uni and 12 grams of salt. Place the uni slightly apart in a flat sealable container lined with a paper towel, and sprinkle with the salt (see below). I put on the lid and placed it in the refrigerator for three hours. After three hours, moisture came out and was absorbed by the paper towel. Since we were going to consume the uni the next day, I just move the uni to a smaller sealable container. If you use a sterilized container (a glass jar sterilized in boiling water, cooled and dried), the uni should last at least 1 week in the refrigerator).
In any case, I forgot to take a picture when we had this the next day. To serve it I made a bottom layer of thinly sliced mini cucumber on a plate and put the salted uni on the top. We folded the cucumber and uni into single serving seasoned nori sheets 味付け海苔 and enjoyed the combination of flavors. The uni became bit more creamy with more intense flavor. Definitely I will use this technique to preserve and enhance the flavor of uni in the future.
In any case, we had the remaining tuna two ways; one is tuna cubes with avocado 鮪とアボカドの角切り(seasoned with finely chopped garlic, sesame oil and soy sauce).
Another was just straightforward tuna sashimi with blanched broccoli with sesame dressing ブロッコリーの胡麻和え, salt broth snap peas スナップ豌豆の塩びたし, Japanese omelet 出汁巻 and "asazuke" 浅漬け of cucumber and daikon.
In any case, we had a very good 3rd hanami.