Japanese “Mizu” eggplant Asazuke 水茄子の浅漬け

We got some Mizu-nasu 水茄子from Suzuki Farm. This is a special type of Japanese eggplant which can be eaten raw. I used one of them, to make asazuke. Instead of just salting the eggplant, I used a brine and also some threads of kelp called “Kizami Konbu 刻み昆布” to marinate it. We first tasted it after it had been marinating in the fridge for a few hours (#1). While that was good we liked it best after it had been marinating for one or two days.

This is how we received the eggplant from Suzuki Farm (#2). It was very fresh without any blemishes. After removing the stem end, I tore it lengthwise (#3) into pieces. Supposedly, the irregular surface this creates makes better asazuke but I am not sure.

Ingredients:
1 Muzu-nasu eggplant, stem end removed and torn lengthwise into several pieces (#3)

Brine:
200 ml water
1 tbs salt
1/2 tbs sugar
1/2 tbs rice vinegar
Dried kelp strings (kizami-konbu 刻み昆布) or small rectangle of dried kelp

Directions:
Mix the water, salt, sugar and rice vinegar for the brine until all the ingredients dissolve. Add the dried kelp. Add the brine into a Ziploc bag and add the eggplant.
Squeeze out the air from the bag as much as you can and let the eggplant marinate in the fridge for at least a few hours to a few days.

You could serve the eggplant with a garnish of bonito flakes, thinly sliced myoga or spring onions. You could also add soy sauce or ponzu sauce just before eating.

Cold Udon with Sesame Sauce 胡麻ソース和え冷製うどん

Cold noodles especially cold ramen noodles or “Hiyashi ramen 冷やしラーメン” and “Somen 素麺” are very popular summer lunches. Surprisingly I have not posted about cold somen noodles. I am sure I made them before but it could have been before we started the blog. Recently I made “cold pasta with tomatoes”トマトの冷製パスタusing thin udon noodles which we like a lot. Whenever we cook udon noodles, we make enough intentionally to have left-overs which we can use to make other dishes.  I decided to make a cold udon noodle dish. I have posted cold udon noodles with home-made ponzu and myoga  and cold udon with dipping sauce. This time, I made cold udon with sesame sauce. We happened to have simmered pork or “nibuta 煮豚” and marinated soft boiled eggs (from home-pasteurized eggs) or “ajitama 味玉”. So these became the toppings. The sesame sauce was made using roasted sesame seeds. (I re-roast store-bought “roasted” white sesame seeds) which adds a nice strong sesame flavor. I added a dab of Japanese mustard from a tube to my dish which gave the it a nice zing which I liked but my wife passed on the mustard (#1). 

Ingredients: (two small servings seen in #1)
1 servings of thin dried udon noodles, cooked as per the package instruction. Wash in cold running water after cooking (divided into two servings)

Toppings (anything you like but some protein, egg, and veggies such as cucumber. The ingredients listed below are what I used. Amounts are all arbitrary)
Simmered “nibuta 煮豚” pork, julienne
Cucumber, seeds removed,  julienned (I used American mini-cucumber)
“Gari ガリ” ginger slices in sweet vinegar, excess marinade squeezed out, julienned
Fresh “kikurage 木耳 wood ear mushroom (previously blanched, washed, and patted dry), julienned (I dressed it with home-made sweet vinegar)
Scallions, finely chopped
Ajitama 味玉, marinated soft boiled egg
Roasted white sesame seeds

Sesame sauce:
1 tbs white sesame, re-roasted in a dry pan (I used a special sesame roasting pan),
1 tbs x4 concentrated Japanese noodle sauce
1 tbs ponzu
1 tsp rice vinegar
1 tbs mirin
1 or more tbs water

Directions:
Grind the sesame seeds in a Japanese “suri-bachi 摺鉢” mortar until oil comes out but stop before it becomes paste.
Add the ponzu, noodle sauce, mirin and vinegar. Taste and add the water to adjust the strength of the seasoning
Add the noodles to the sauce and mix so that the sauce will coat the surface of the noodles evenly (#2).

Add the toppings and garnish with sesame (#1). 

The sesame flavor really worked. I did not add any additional oil. I could have added Japanese hot mustard to the sauce but since my wife is not keen on really spicy food, I only added it to my serving. This turned out to be a very nice lunch on a hot and muggy day such as what we have been having  recently. 

Braised shishito with bonito flakes シシトウのおかかまぶし

 Japanese green pepper, (Shishi-tougarashi or shishitou 獅子唐辛子) is getting popular here. Nonetheless to my surprise, I found a bag of fresh shishitou at our regular grocery store the other day and got it. Eating Shishitou in U.S. is somewhat like a form of Russian roulette  since you can occasionally come across one that is atomically hot and you can never tell in advance which one it might be. Your first clue is when your mouth “catches on fire” as you bite into the pepper. (It seems this happens more often with U.S. raised shishitou than those raise in Japan. Legend says it has something to do with the soil.) In any case, I decided to make a shishitou dish I have not made before and added two small dishes as starters for the evening.

I thought if I de-vein and de-seed the shishitou, chances of hitting a hot one should be much less. So I de-veined and de-seeded and cut shishitou in long quarter strips. I served this with dashimaki だし巻きJapanese omelet with “aonori” 青のり dried seaweed.

Ingredients: (for two small appetizer servings)
4 shishitou, de-deined and de-seeded, cut into quarter strips lengthwise.
1 tsp x4 concentrated Japanese noodle sauce (or half and half of mirin and soy sauce)
1 tsp vegetable oil
3 tsp or more dried bonito flakes.

Directions:
Saute the shishitou in vegetable oil on medium heat for a few minutes.
Turn dow the flame to low and add the noodle sauce and quickly braise.
Cut the flame and mix in the bonito flakes.

I also served two small appetizer dishes. The below is chicken tenderloin (from chicken roasted in the Weber grill) dressed in sesame dressing 鳥のささみの胡麻和え.

“Hya-yakko” 冷奴 cold cube of silken tofu topped with myoga  茗荷 and perilla 大葉 (both from our garden) and grated ginger with the concentrated Japanese noodle sauce.

These three appetizers were a perfect start of the evening. By the way, we did not get any atomically hot shishito in this batch. (Maybe this was due to the luck of the draw or maybe it is indeed worthwhile to removed the vein and seeds.)

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.

These covered small dishes make a nice presentation since lifting the lid reveals the contents as a pleasant  surprise. (On this occasion, however, my wife knew exactly what the dishes contained). From left to right are original uni shuto, salt water uni and the myoga dish.

Fresh uni from Maruhide is frequently out of stock. Recently however, fresh uni in seawater (i.e. uni in salt water with a salt concentration equivalent to seawater; about 3.5 percent) became available which was fine with us so we ordered it. We already had original uni shuto frozen in the freezer so we decided to have an “uni tasting festival” of both the seawater uni and the original uni shuto. As I mentioned before, most of the fresh uni is treated with “alum’ which makes it a bit firmer. The salt water uni is not treated or processed at all; just placed in seawater equivalent. As a result, it is a bit softer but has a pure uni taste. Dipped in wasabi and sashimi shouyu it is sublime uni enjoyment.

The picture below shows the original uni shuto(u). Maruhide is the only place this is made. Compared to other preserved uni (classic are “ Neri-uni” 練りウニ, “Tsubu-uni” 粒ウニ and less commonly “steamed-uni” 蒸しウニ). The former two are readily available in Japan and come in small jars. They are salted and some alcohol is added and processed (the details are not clear). Neri-uni is homgenized and paste-like and Tsubu-uni retains its original shape. Maruhide Uni shutou is closer to tsubu-uni but it includes some additional proprietary process. In any case, it comes frozen in a jar and tastes much better than any other preserved uni we have tried. This should just be enjoyed without any additional seasonings .

Finally, we enjoy the very unique and distinct flavors of fresh myoga. We just harvested this in the morning. I combined the myoga with cucumber and wakame (salt-preserved one) dressed in sumiso 酢味噌.

Nothing comes close to fresh, especially saltwater, uni. But Maruhide uni shuto comes in a close second. Each has it’s own rich distinctive taste that goes extremely well with a sip of cold sake. Also, because of the rich taste intensity a little goes a long way. The myogo is such seasonal late summer taste harbinger of fall. Its distinctive fresh somewhat sharp taste complemented the the rich uni beautifully. 

Grilled yellowtail filet ハマチの塩焼き

Choosing among the whole fresh fish available from HMart Korean grocery store, we tried "yellowtail" this time. The Japanese name may be "hamachi" ハマチ  but the Japanese name changes as this fish grows. If the fish is over 80 cm, it is called "Buri" ブリ which appears to be the uniform nomenclature throughout Japan.  The younger, smaller yellowtail, however, has many different names depending on the locale. The one we got may have qualified as a small "hamachi". Of course, the best way to enjoy hamachi is as sashimi, but this one was not fresh enough for that. So, after I cleaned the fish I made what is known in Japanese as sannmai-oroshi 三枚おろし  or “three layers” which consist of two filets and a central layer of bone with bits of meat still attached between the bones. I cut one of the filets into serving size, salted it and let it stand in the refrigerator for several hours. I blotted the surface with paper towel, re-salted and cooked it. It would have been best grilled over a charcoal fire but I simply cooked it in a frying pan with a small amount of olive oil. I served it with salted vegetables 浅漬け (Cucumber, nappa cabbage, thick rectangles of daikon), myoga in sweet vinegar 冥加の甘酢漬け and blanched broccoli. I found that we had a chopstick rest shaped like myoga so in keeping with the theme included it for the chopsticks on the tray. This dish was quite good with cold sake.

When we received the fish, it was about 30cm in length and came gutted with tail and fins cut off but the head was still on. After I prepared the fish, we had two half heads (cut in half along the spine,) two collars and two filets.

I cut the two filets into small serving size. I cooked one of the filets as shown here. I marinated the other filet in sake lee ハマチの酒粕味噌漬け. I simmered the heads as "Kabuto-ni" 兜煮, and the collars or "Kama" カマ were frozen for later. I also scraped off all the meat from the bone and also removed the meat from skin of the tail portions and used it to make a yellowtail burger ハマチバーガー (all the subjects of future posts). So every part of the fish, except the bones and fins was used— nothing was waste. In so doing I hope we did justice to what this lovely fish had to offer.

Grilled bluefish and matsutake lunch

We used to get a whole fresh Spanish mackerel at Whole foods, but it has not been available for a long time. Since we started buying groceries from the Korean grocery store HMart through Instacart, we have found they have more variety of whole fresh fish available. We got whole Spanish mackerel from them a few times. This time, however, mackerel was not available but bluefish was. We have used bluefish* in place of Spanish mackerel in the past and decided to go with it. I am not sure how I ordered it (by weight or by the numbers) but I ended up with two rather large bluefish not cleaned at all. So, I had to scale, gut, remove head and make filets. It was a bit of work but the fish was really fresh. As before, I made bluefish simmered in miso sauce ブルーフィシュの味噌煮 from the filets and  "tsumire" fish balls soup つみれ汁 from the fish meat scraped off the bones. I set the fish ball soup and miso simmered fish aside for another meal. The remaining filets, I salted and grilled. We happened to have matsutake 松茸 from Oregon mushroom and matsutake rice 松茸ご飯 rice leftover from dinner the previous night. So I made matsutake soup 松茸のお吸い物, warmed up the  rice and served with the bluefish for our lunch on Sunday.

* I am not sure of its Japanese name but it appears to be "Oki-suzuki" オキスズキ. I have not seen or eaten it while I lived in Japan.

I first salted the fillet and let it sit in the refrigerator for a few hours. I cooked the bluefish filet with a small amount of olive oil in a frying pan on low flame with skin side  down until the skin got brown (6-7 minutes, I also applied decorative cuts on the skin to prevent the skin breaking during the cooking). I cooked 80% on the skin side, flipped it and completed the cooking. I served this with pickled myoga 冥加の甘酢漬け, salt picked cucumber and nappa cabbage きゅうりと白菜の浅漬け and thinly sliced cucumber dressed in sushi vinegar 胡瓜の酢の物. Since the fish was well-salted, we did not need additional sauce such as soy sauce for this.

For the matsutake soup 松茸のお吸い物, I made bonito "dashi" カツオの出汁 from a dash pack seasoned with mirin and light colored soy sauce and salt, added thinly sliced matsutake, silken tofu, "kyoubu" 京麩  decorative gluten cake (dried, hydrate before adding to the soup), freeze dried "mitsuba" 三つ葉 and yuzu zest ゆず (frozen).

The bluefish prepared this way was very good. The flesh was pleasingly oily, soft and had a nice flavor. The skin did not get crispy but stayed soft. It may have been a bit strong tasting fish to accompany the delicate matsutake but we really enjoyed this lunch.

Special take-out Kaiseki box from Sushi Taro 寿司太郎のテイクアウト特製会席弁当

Prior to COVID the omakase counter at Sushi Taro was our special-occasion-go-to place. As a matter of fact, we had a reservation in March this year but because of COVID, that got canceled. I knew for some time that, although the restaurant was closed, Sushi Taro has been doing take-out. But getting there either from home or work for the pick-up was impractical. Since I started thinking about the NewYear “Osechi” 御節 from Sushi Taro, I contacted them. I was delighted to find out that they are going to do Osechi for the next New Year and I quickly placed an order. During that interaction, I learned that they do special omakase kaiseki boxes-to-go and that they can deliver. I quickly placed an order. Delivery was scheduled for Friday at 5pm. We were like little kids in anticipation. I even "just happened" to come home from work a bit early for the delivery. It arrived in two, two-tiered (bento or modified jubako?) boxes. (a total of four boxes with three compartments each). We initially thought we got two identical sets but when we opened the second box, surprise!  We were totally blown away. All compartments contained many wonderful different dishes. The first one had some cooked dishes, two different kinds of sushi. The cooked dishes in the top tier were still warm.

The second set included fresh sashimi and sashimi fish dishes.

Disclaimer alert:  This entry is just for us to remember what we enjoyed so we can relive the experience. A menu was not included so in some cases I am guessing what the dishes were and may be totally wrong.

We started with sashimi 刺身. Akami 赤身, chu-toro 中トロ, hamachi ハマチ, salmon サーモンand ama-ebi shrimp 甘海老.

From upper left clockwise: grilled ginko nuts 焼銀杏 (We love ginko nuts.We used to be able to buy small cans of boiled ginko nuts but they totally disappeared and we have not seen them for sometime. ), California Uni カルフォルニア雲丹, cod roe たらこ (not a “mentaiko” 明太子 but with some spice), grilled egg plant 焼きナス (it must have also been smoked. It had a nice smokey flavor and the broth was subtly seasoned and delicious ).

Abalone liver simmered with sansho 鮑の肝煮物 (I think this is seasoned with whole sansho pepper 実山椒, a type of “arimani” 有馬煮, this is a perfect drinking snack and we love it, the red berry must be goji berry or “kuko” クコ), sake steamed abalone 鮑の酒蒸し with a nice seasoning , I think the next one is Hokkaido "bafun" uni 北海道のバフンウニ , and under the cover is ikura marinated in soy sauce いくらの醤油漬け. (On one of our visits to the restaurant we had an impromptu uni tasting to compare California vs Maine vs Hokkaido - they are all good but I am a little partial to the Hokkaido uni mostly because I am originally from there. 

From the left upper clockwise: Some kind o pate/paste. I am not sure but monk fish liver ("ankimo" 鮟肝) may be included, some kind of fish liver simmered, edible flower petal (probably chrysanthemum) and chestnut "sibukawa-ni" 渋皮煮.

The dish shown below was a small whole simmered fish with roe, "kanroni" 甘露煮.  I thought this could be "Ayu" sweet fish but it was not.  So, I don't know exactly what it was. It could be "Iwashi" イワシ sardine. It was cooked to tenderness and the bone was soft and could be eaten. It was topped with "shiraga-negi" white hair scallion 白髪葱 . This is an example of the attention to detail characteristic through out these dishes. The scallion was a small detail but it went very well with this fish and really set off the dish.

From the top, kaskino-ha-zushi 柿の葉寿司 (trout sushi wrapped in persimon leaves), flower renkon 花輪レンコン and shime saba oshizushi (battera) しめ鯖の押し寿司 or バッテラ.

Nigiri-sushi 握り寿司. From the top left clockwise: Hamachi ハマチ, Toro トロ, kohada コハダ, sweet omelet, anago with “tsume“ sauce 穴子, and saba サバ or sawara さわら.

Pictured below large prawn/small lobster; probably "botan-ebi" ボタン海老 (raw) in a gentle broth,  topped with myoga, roe (cooked), and julienne of red and green sweet pepper. The sweet pepper and sweet meat went well together complementing each other.

Crab meat, jelle sauce, ikura, slices of dried persimmon 干し柿 and other items. Again, sweetness of the persimmons and crab are good match.

The next three dishes are all cooked and contain some kind of fish/sea food. The selection of ingredients such as the matsutake, myoga, chestnuts and kabocha in these dishes as well the use of eggplant and persimmon in the dishes above exemplify the autumn season.  The use of seasonal ingredients is another example of the attention to detail shown through out the dishes in these boxes. 

Underneath of all the vegetables were two good sized shrimp balls shinjo エビしんじょ(minced shrimp and white fish paste). Fried lotus root, kabocha, simmered "fu" gluten cake, matsutake stems, green beans topped with zest of “kabosu” かぼす.

Simmered “kabu”turnip かぶ, chestnuts 栗 and fish (cod?). The green is most likely “Mizuna” 水菜 .

Small tasty fish (I do not know what it is), simmered, matsutake 松茸, fried shishito ししとう, picked myoga 茗荷の甘酢漬け.

Fortunately, we just got a shipment of sake from Tippsy sake. We had a cold “Kagatobi” 加賀鳶 純米吟醸 from Ishikawa-prefecture 石川県. We throughly enjoyed these wonderful dishes in the comfort of home. It was quite a memorable treat!

Salted and grilled mackerel 鯖の塩焼き

 Come to think of it, I never cooked mackerel this basic way. When I got two whole Spanish mackerels from HMart via Instacart, there was too much to make it all into the miso-simmered dish 鯖の味噌煮 I usually make. So, I took two filets I prepared from the smaller of the two fish and made this salted and grilled mackerel. I filleted the fish and removed the small pin bones. Then I cut one filet into two and salted both sides. I let it stand for 10 minutes and blotted the surfaces using a paper towel. I made shallow cuts on the skin and re-salted it. Since I do not have a Japanese style fish grill and I did not want to cook fish in the toaster oven, I sautéed the fillets in a frying pan with a small amount of olive oil.

This is a basic simple way of cooking mackerel but it was good. On the side, I added sliced mini-cucumber (salted and moisture squeezed out) dressed in sushi vinegar. Since we had just harvested and pickled myoga, I added it too. This could have gone very well with rice. We had it as a drinking snack with cold sake.

Mackerel ball soup with myoga flowers 鯖のつみれ汁と茗荷の花

We used to get whole Spanish mackerel 鯖 or サワラ at Whole Foods but recently it has not been available.  We discovered we could get mackerel as well as many other asian food items from a local Korean market called “HMart”.  Although their main focus is Korean food, they also carry Japanese food items that are not available elsewhere. In this time of Covid, we are using a delivery service (Instacart) to "shop" HMart and it has opened new horizons for us. 

One weekend, we got 2 lbs. of Spanish mackerel which consisted of one large and one small mackerel. As usual, I prepared the fish "san mai-in-orosu” 三枚におろす meaning into three layers i.e. two filets and the remaining bone. I removed the small pin bones from the filets.  I made most of the larger mackerel filets into miso-simmered mackerel 鯖の味噌煮. With the filets of the smaller mackerel, I made a salted and grilled mackerel dish 鯖の塩焼き(subject of a future post). 

The third and final part of the preparation involved the remaining bone. I removed the meat clinging to the bones by scraping it off using a small spoon. (This is a classic Japanese technique used mostly for tuna to make sure no meat of the fish is left behind). I made the scrapings into fish balls for our usual fish ball soup or 鯖のツミレ汁 which I served as lunch one day. I rounded out the soup by adding Japanese udon noodles (we happened to have noodles already cooked), silken tofu I got from Tako Grill (beside take-out, tako grill now sells some Japanese groceries), shiitake mushrooms and topped it with myoga flowers we just harvested and freeze dried “mitsu-ba” ミツバwhich was also from Tako grill.

Unfortunately, you cannot see the fish balls because they sank to the bottom.

Although the freeze dried mitsuba did not have much flavor, the myoga flowers did. They had the subtle bitter flavor characteristic of myoga. The only way it is possible to eat myoga flowers is getting them from myoga grown in your own backyard. The flowers are extremely perishable so once the myoga blooms, it immediately loses its commercial value. It has been some time since we have been able to experience the luxury and subtle taste of myoga flowers. 

Myoga harvest 2020 冥加の収穫 ２０２０

Last year, we could harvest only a few myoga (or myouga 冥加) from the new myoga rhizomes we planted in the spring of 2019 to replace the ones that had mysteriously disappeared. But this year we finally got a good harvest. This harvest was much later than usual; mid September instead of early August as in previous years. Nonetheless the myoga buds were much larger and well formed. To harvest myoga, these edible buds are under ground just below the surface. The only way to harvest them is to scrabble in the dirt with your bare hands to find them with your fingers and then dig them up. My wife is skilled and persistent at finding myoga. She can go over a patch I just harvested and dig up many more. She did comment, however, that harvesting myoga wrecks havoc on her manicure. (News Flash! She admitted she has never had a manicure). So, the below is this year’s harvest.

A few had already flowered but we harvested many just in time. I decided to leave the small ones to enjoy fresh. I made the remaining myoga into pickles (pickled in sweet vinegar). Since this year's myoga were large, I decided to halve them before making them to pickles. By halving them, I could clean them better as well.

Ingredients:
Myoga (we probably had about 4 cups), cleaned and halved (or whole if they are small)

For sweet vinegar (combine the below in a pan and heat and melt the sugar and salt)
1 cup rice vinegar
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt

Directions:
In a sealable  container, add the myoga and the sweet vinegar. It may not completely cover the myoga but myoga will exude water and in few days, all myoga will be covered. Seal the lid and refrigerate. It can be eaten after 3-4 days. In the previous post 10 years ago, I said this will keep for at least several weeks but we have eaten the previous batch for at least 3 years. After one year, all the red color was bleached out but it was still good.

We are so delighted to have a decent myoga harvest! We had cold silken tofu (hiya-yakko 冷奴) with thinly sliced myoga and bonito flakes. Myoga has such a distinct flavor which we really missed.

First myoga harvest in 3 years 三年ぶりの茗荷の収穫

We could not harvest our myoga (myouga) 茗荷 for the past three years due to various obstacles . More recently, most of our myoga plants disappeared for some reason. Possibly the rabbits ate them. (They did have signs of being tasted by some critter before they disappeared).  Or more likely,  they were removed by mistake by our gardener's nephew who was helping out with the fall clean-up. (I suppose they looked "weedy"; not like something we should have in the garden and they were taking over, which was OK with us).  We tried to purchase some myoga though the internet without success. So when our landscaper came to do some work in our yard this year we asked if he could get us some replacement myoga. He kindly gave us 4 myoga plant/rhizomes from his father's myoga patch (his father is a retired master Japanese garden landscaper).  We thankfully planted them this spring. Just to give a clear message to all involved (rabbits and especially gardener's nephews) we surrounded the plants with stakes and a plastic mesh fence to make it clear that these were not plants to be messed with.  In any case, later in the spring we discovered a few straggler myoga from the previous batch which we think survived because they were "hiding" behind and amongst other plants.

We have posted many uses of myoga including picked myoga. We still have some pickles left from 3 years ago in our refrigerator.  We are still enjoying them despite the fact they are "refrigerator pickles". They are still quite good and show no sign of going bad. But it is time to look for the new harvest. One weekend, my wife donned her  mosquito suit. On hands and knees with head buried in the plants, scrabbled into the dirt with her hands to uncover the buried flower buds of the myoga which is the part that is eaten. (They have to be harvested before they emerge from the ground. Once they bloom they become soft and mushy and aren't good.) It is not a pleasant task...but, hey, we really like myoga!  She found three developing buds (see below) from the old surviving myoga plants but none from newly planted myoga. (We'll probably have to wait until next year for them to be established enough to produce buds.)

My wife also said she uncovered a few very premature buds and covered them up again so they could grow bigger. We should wait for few more weeks to hopefully get a better harvest. In any case, we have not had fresh myoga for some time.  So, I served this as a garnish for cold "hiya-yakko" tofu 冷や奴.

The tofu is, as usual, one of the "Otokomae" 男前 tofu. I also garnished with chiffonade of perilla. For sauce, I used the usual, concentrated noodle sauce from the bottle.

Myogo may be acquired taste but we really love it especially fresh and it was wonderful to have their taste again. It has a very unique flavor that is hard to describe and there is no equivalent to which to compare it. Hope we will have more myoga harvest this year.

Sushi Taro Michelin ☆ Part 1, すし太郎 ミシュラン☆ その１

Finally Michelin came to Washington, DC and bestowed a galaxy of stars upon the city. While no 3 star constellations appeared, once they were done, 2 stars appeared behind the name of three restaurants, and one star for eight others. Among the eight restaurants which received one star was our "special occasion" Japanese restaurant "Sushi Taro" すし太郎 in Dupont Circle. We didn't need Michelin to tell us how good Sushi Taro is. We had discovered that some time ago all on our own. We gave it top rating among all the excellent restaurants we have visited even in Japan. The "star" is well deserved and as far as we are concerned, it shines bright as Venus. Despite our concern that, with the additional fame of a star, we would have difficulty getting a reservation, we were able to get a seat recently and had a fabulously memorable dinner. 

The night we were there, the main dining room was crowded and bustling but the Omakase Sushi Kaiseki 会席 area, which was separated from the main dining room, was serene and quiet. The roof top garden of bamboo highlighted in the large picture window in front of us contributed to the sense of tranquility. This was an Omakase (chef choice) dinner consisting of multiple small dishes reflecting the season and the best ingredients available. Sushi Taro deviates from a regular Kaiseki by prominently featuring sashimi and sushi. The counter accommodates 6 guests. They take only two parties and one seating per night. Each party gets the full undivided attention of Nobuhiro "Nobu" Yamazaki 山崎信博 (chef owner) or Masaya "Masa" Kitayama 北山勝也 (chef de cuisine)  for the entire length of the dinner.

We were warmly greeted by Chef de cuisine Masaya Kitayama. After choosing our sake, "Kubota Manju Diaginjo" 久保田万寿大吟醸 from Niigata 新潟 and our Guinomi ぐい呑 sake cups, an incredible course  of delicacies started. With the permission of Chef Masa, I took, or at least tried to take, some pictures. (Sometimes I got so wound up with excitement to taste the dish I forgot to take a picture.)

1. Grilled Goma-dofu 胡麻豆腐 with sesame sauce.

This is a variation of Sushi Taro's standard opening of "goma-dofu". The thin grilled crust contrasted with soft but elastic inside. Of course, freshly grated wasabi was nice with perfectly smooth sesame sauce.

2. House-smoked oyster with persimmon dressed in 150 year old balsamic vinegar　牡蠣と柿の和え物. 

This was an autumnal dish using a persimmon as a bowl which contained bite size pieces of house-smoked oyster (Kaki 牡蠣 in Japanese) and persimmon (Kaki 柿 in Japanese). So this was a whimsical play on words "Kaki and kaki in kaki". Crispy bits of deep fried "onion" (I am guessing this was  Tokyo scallion or "nihon negi" 日本ネギ) added nice flavor and crunch. The aged balsamic vinegar was sublime with just a hint of acidity and sweetness, which further brought out the sweetness of  the persimmon. The oyster was lightly smoked and very tender. Every aspect of the dish worked well together. 

3. Hassun 八寸 appetizer: 

Okinawan mozuku seaweed in sweet vinegar 沖縄モズク, chestnut encased in edible imitation "Iga" outer spiky shell イガ栗揚げ, mustard stuffed-lotus root 辛子蓮根,  stuffed ginko nuts 銀杏 (clockwise starting from left back) and pickled myoga ミョウガの甘酢漬け (center).

We were told that the chestnuts were from California. Among the batch of chestnuts Chef Masa received, he carefully chose those that did not have the tough inner shell separation characteristic of California chestnuts. The ones he used in this dish were visually perfect; just one example of his impeccable attention to detail. The chestnuts were cooked in a special way called "Shibukawa-ni" 渋皮煮. With this method, the papery brown inner skin is left on but is not bitter. The chestnut was encased in a puree of white fish ("surimi" すり身) and short segments of dried somen noodles ソーメン were attached to imitate "spines" of chestnut outer shell and deep fried. It was then partially opened up to show the chestnut inside, a nice depiction of chestnuts peeking through the outer spiny shell, but all edible.  Each morsel in the dish provided a different taste and texture which were distinct and unique but went well together as a whole. For example, the stuffed lotus root had a nice crunch and a slight zing of mustard, which went well with the soft texture and vinegar of the seaweed which in turn played in tune with the somewhat sweeter vinegar but coarser texture of the myoga with its own unique flavor. All the items were perfect for sipping sake..

4. Simmered abalone 鮑の柔らか煮, Japanese "Komatsuna" greens 小松菜 and Japanese "sato-imo" taro 里芋 in oyster broth.

The broth was very special with an intense brininess and pleasing essence of "Ocean". It was made from the cooking liquid in which many oysters were simmered for another dish according to Chef Masaya. This concentrated oyster broth was the basis for the seasoning for this dish. Chef Masaya told us that abalone does not have much of its own flavor but has a nice texture. To boost the flavor of the abalone, he let the oyster and other umami flavors of the broth permeate the abalone. Although it is generally not polite to drink the broth in this kind of dish, it was way too good to leave behind; without shame we both drank it dry.

Next is the sashimi and sushi course (to be continued).

Avocado Tofu アボカド豆腐

We usually keep some avocados on hand. I buy the greenest and hardest avocados I can find and let them ripen on the counter top. The reason I buy only unripened avocados is because already ripened avocados from grocery store look like they have been used as hockey pucks; they are usually extremely blemished with brown soft spots that need to be cut out. Often, the only thing that can be done is to "euthanize" the poor things. For this reason they are not even worth buying. I let the rock-hard ones I buy ripen for a few days on the counter in the kitchen. When they start to ripen I move them to the refrigerator. That way, I have a steady supply of avocados all week. I usually slice them and put it in the sandwiches we take to work. I often make leftover avocados into guacamole. This weekend I made one into guacamole but still had one left. I happened to come across this recipe which was originally from the blog by a Japanese woman who lives in France. This looked interesting. Since my wife (and I)  are into gelatin based dishes, I made this avocado tofu.

Since we have not yet harvested new myoga from our backyard, I garnished this with my home-made pickled myoga みょうがの甘酢漬け (from the last year season), wasabi and perilla. For sauce, I just repurposed the broth from my summer cold simmered vegetables.

The below was servings for light lunch over the weekend, I noticed dark color just on the surface despite I used a small amount of lemon juice which was not in the original recipe. All avocado containing dishes discolor after exposure to oxygen. At least this dish did not turn into the non-appetizing brown color that the exposed surface of avocado often will take.

This was the sort of two course light lunch and I served avocado tofu as a first dish which was followed by lobster bisque with crab meat. This time, I thawed a tube of real wasabi. Compared to common imitation wasabi (made from horseradish), the real wasabi made a big difference, I garnished it with tobiko, thinly sliced scallion.

I also added a small leaf of perilla. For sauce, I used concentrated noodle sauce straight. This tasted better with very good bonito dashi flavor.

Ingredients:

One avocado, stone and skin removed, cut into small cubes (Original avocado weighed 225grams)(#1).

Half silken tofu* (250g) (#2)

Cream 1tbs

Lemon juice 1tsp

Powdered gelatin (I envelope, about 6 grams) and cold 3 tbs water.

*This is US made by "Nasoya". It is silken tofu and is quite good but mostly being sold for making "smoothies" (#2).

Directions:

In the  plastic container for my emersion blender, I added avocado, cream, and lemon juice (thinking this may prevent discoloration),  I added the tofu and blended using my emersion blender (#3). I bloomed the gelatin in cold water in a small pyrex ramekin. I microwave it for 30 seconds until dissolved and mixed into the avocado-tofu  mixture. I lined a small disposable loaf pan with a plastic wrap and poured in the mixture and let it set for several hours. 

This is a very luxurious dish. It has an amazingly smooth texture and nice avocado flavor that goes well with wasabi and soy sauce based sauce.