Mock Tofu 擬制豆腐

I saw this recipe of “Mock tofu” or “Gisei-dofu 擬制豆腐” on Youtube by Chef. Kasahara 笠原. It looked interesting and I happened to have extra tofu and fresh shiitake mushroom which needed to be used up before going bad. Supposedly, this is a common form of “shojin-ryouri 精進料理” or vegetarian cooking done by Buddhist monks. The name “mock” or “gisei” reportedly comes from the fact that tofu was crumbed, other ingredients are added,  formed into an original rectangular shape of tofu and cooked. No eggs should be used in the original shojin-ryori but modern renditions use eggs as binder and some recipes even call for ground meat. 

While I was making this, I realized a U.S. block of tofu is larger than a Japanese block so I was afraid that the final loaf which had more tofu may not firm up but it did. The cut surface looked more like tofu than omelette (picture #1). I did not make it too sweet but this is a very good looking dish and tasted very gentle with nice texture.  Adding more tofu appeared to work. According to Chef Kasahara, this is his regular osechi “new year” dish. I may add this to my osechi next year. Since this could be a new year osechi dish, I served the slices on a small crane design plate we bought in Kyoto some years ago since the “crane” is very suitable motif for new year cerebration.

Ingredients: (made two loaves measuring 2 1/2 and 5 1/2 inch)

1 package (14oz or 400gram*) tofu (I used medium firm), drained, wrapped in paper towel with a weight on the top (I used two cutting boards as weights) for 20 minutes, crumble by hand

3 large eggs, beaten

4-5 caps of shiitake mushroom, thinly sliced

1 small carrot, julienned

3 scallions finely chopped

1 tbs vegetable oil

*Apparently Japanese one block of tofu is smaller. The original recipe used one block which was 300grams. 

Seasoning*:

1 tbs x 4 concentrated noodle sauce or soy sauce either light colored or regular

1 tbs mirin

* Original recipe calls for soy sauce and sugar. The above is not as sweet.

Directions:

Prepare loaf pans (I used two 2 1/2 x 5 1/2 inch silicon loaf pans) by lining with parchment paper and lightly oil for easy lifting (see “A” in the composite picture).  Preheat oven to 350F*.

In a frying pan on medium heat, add 1 tbs vegetable oil and sauté the carrot and mushroom. After few minutes, add the crumbled tofu and keep stirring for another 5 minutes or so until water is not seeping out from the tofu. Add the seasonings and cook until no liquid is visible on the bottom. Add the scallion, mix and shut off the flame.

Add the half of the eggs and mix. The residual heat will semi cook the eggs. Add the remaining eggs and mix.

Pour in the mixture to the loaf pans and press and flatten the surface with a silicon spatula.

Place the loaf pans in the 350F oven for 30 minutes (“A” in the composite picture) .

*Original recipe calls for 250C oven which is over 480F. I thought this was way too hot. Using my own discretion, I baked at 350F (about 180C) using the toaster oven in convection mode.

After cooling down for 10 minutes, I lifted the load out of the pan using both ends of the parchment paper (“B” in the composite picture). I sliced it after it cooled to near room temperature.

As I mentioned before, because of the larger proportion of tofu in my rendition (albeit by accident), the cut surface looks more like tofu than omelette. I do not think this dish should be omelette with tofu mixed in. More like tofu dish hiding the use of eggs like some Buddhist monks may have done. 

Obviously, you could alter the vegetables you can use in this dish. Renkon, wood ear mushroom, green beans, hijiki, ginnan, mitsuba etc were suggested. I also saw the recipes adding ground meat but I do not particularly like that idea.

In any case, we really like this dish as I made it (by accident??).

P.S. I made this dish again with few modifications. 

1. Seasonings: I used 2 tsp sugar and 2tbs x4 concentrated Japanese noodle sauce making it sweeter thatn the first. This appears to have worked. Both of us liked the a bit sweeter taste better.

2. I used three silicon loaf pans without parchment paper lining but coating the inside with a small mount of oil. The giese-tofu came out without problem. I am not sure the oil is needed.

Happy New Year 2025 謹賀新年2025

Happy New Year! This is the year of  the snake 巳年. We put out a small Japanese “Kagami-mochi” 鏡餅 decoration with three snake figurines. The center is actually a “netsuke” 根付 we purchased some years ago from a shop in Nakamise, Asakusa 仲見世、浅草.  They specialize in miniatures (the shop is also very small almost a miniature itself.)

As usual, we started the day with our regular breakfast of Cafe Latte and some bread/muffins. We have our new year’s soup or “Ozouni” お雑煮 for lunch with a few side dishes I made. (We will wait until evening to open up the Sushi Taro Osetchi Juubako 寿司太郎の御節重箱). The picture below, shows the dishes I served for lunch. They include ‘datemaki” 伊達巻, salmon kelp rolls 鮭の昆布巻き, “kazunoko” 数の子 herring roe (store bought*), wakasaki わかさぎ (store bought), Russian marinated salmon 鮭のロシアずけ folded into the shape of a rose with marinated ikura on top, and daikon namasu 大根なます with slices of octopus leg.

The “ozouni” お雑煮 “new year soup” is our usual. I added daikon, carrot, shrimp, shiitake mushroom and gluten cake or “fu”. In addition, I added chopped renkon to the tsukune balls 蓮根つくねだんご　 which worked well. We like this better than pieces of chicken meat.  It goes without saying that we had a ceremonial glass or two of sake to celebrate the new year 2025! Nice beginning of the new year.  We will open up Sushi Taro Osechi Box this evening.

Marinated Chicken Tender Cutlet 鳥のささみのカツレツ

We like chicken “sasa-mi” 笹身*  tenders and made quite a few dishes and posted them in the past. One of the problems with chicken tenders is that they tend to get dry when cooked. The best way is to make sous vide skin-on, bone-in chicken breast , then remove the tenders from the breast after cooking. This will provide succulent and chicken tenders. I serve these tenders by teasing them into small strands by hand and usually dressing them in sesame dressing. But only one tender can be had per chicken breast half. Other ways of cooking including Yakitori 焼き鳥 works well but over cooking happens if you are not careful. Japanese will serve undercooked (on purpose) or even “raw” chicken tenders but it is not safe to do so here. In any case, I came up with marinading the tenders in ponzu and mirin mixture (hoping the acidity of ponzu may further tenderize and keep them moist and the sweetness of the mirin mitigates the sour taste of the ponzu). I marinate them at least a couple of hours before breading and deep frying them (Chicken tender cutlet). The night I made these chicken tenders they had been marinating over night. Since I had hot oil when I cook them this way, I also fried some arancini I had made some time ago from left-over mushroom risotto. (I shaped the risotto into balls with cubes of Mozzarella cheese in the middle then breaded and froze them. I discovered you can deep fry frozen arancini and they come out really nice.) I served this with fried “renkon” 蓮根  lotus root marinated in X4 Japanese noodle sauce and then dusted with flour. I also served spicy tofu cubes (previously cooked and just heated up before serving in the toaster oven) (pictures #1). 

*Chicken tenders are called “sasa-mi 笹身” in Japanese. “Sasa” is a type of smaller bamboo plant (broad-leaf bamboo) and the shape of its leaves are similar to that of chicken tenders. “mi 身” means “meat”.

The chicken tender cutlets were indeed very nice. The tenders came from Whole Foods. We usually do not buy chicken from Whole Foods but these tenders are one of the best we can have. The round item shown on the left in the picture is the arancini cut in half (you can just see the melted mozzarella in it). The center item is the chicken tender cutlet and beside that on the right is renkon (picture #2).

Ingredients:
One package (1.5lb) chicken tenders

Marinade*
2 tbs Ponzu shoyu
2 tbs Mirin

(*Addendum 12/11/24: Now I use a new marinade which makes the chicken really tender and moist.)
2 tbs mayonnaise
1 tbs soy sauce (or x4 concentrated Japanese noodle sauce which also adds a bit of sweetness and dashi-based umami)

Flour, egg water and panko for breading
Peanut oil for frying

Directions:
In a quarter gallon Ziploc bag add the ponzu and mirin, and the chicken.
Knead to spread the marinade and remove the air as much as you can and let it marinade at least few hours or overnight in the refrigerator

Remove the chicken leaving the marinade.
Bread it with the flour, egg water and Panko bread
In 180F oil, fry for 3-4 minutes turning until crust is golden brown and the center of the thickest part is opeque.

This was quite a meal. The tenders, arancini, and fried renkon were really good. Plenty of crunch with different profiles of flavors. (My wife really likes chicken tender cutlets made this way). The left-overs warm up perfectly in the toaster oven. 

Grated Lotus Root and Tofu Ball レンコンと豆腐まんじゅう

This is a variation of “renkon ball” (renkon manju レンコン饅頭) I posted before.  Besides grated renkon lotus root, it also uses tofu. Since I had the last of the lotus root and half of the tofu, this was a perfect dish to make. I got the idea watching one of the YouTube cook shows. This is a basic version but I could add more items to make it more interesting. I could have made some kind of broth or sauce but this was pretty good as is. Picture #1 shows the cut surface with small chunks of tofu. This has nice soft interior and crunchy crust. When I made this dish I also made “nagaimo” fries which turned out really good and will be the subject of separate post (picture #1 right lower).

Ingredients:
200 grams lotus root, peeled and grated, moisture drained out naturally
300 grams tofu, moisture drained
3 tbs Potato starch
1/2 tsp grated ginger
1 tsp miso (original recipe calls for 1/2 tbs soy sauce, I used miso since the dough was bit runny)
Flour for dredging.
Oil for deep frying.

Directions:
Add the grated lotus root, tofu, potato starch, ginger and miso and mix well until smooth. Add more starch if too watery/soft.
Using the ice cream scoop, make equal sized balls, dredge in the flour and deep fry at 160-180F oil for 3-4 minutes turning a few times until the outside is nicely brown (picture #2).

Initially, I served these hot but it can be heated up nicely in the toaster oven. It is seasoned but you could add soy sauce with grated ginger or some type of hot broth. If I make this again I could add chopped scallion, cut up shrimp, ginko nuts, mushrooms etc to make it more interesting.

A few days later, I tried to make a dish (soup) with the leftover renkon balls (picture #3). I made this for lunch. I made it a few hours ahead and re-heated just before serving. The idea was good but the execution was not so great. While the renkon balls were sitting in the broth they absorbed the broth and mostly disintegrated as you can see in the picture #3. It still tasted good.

This is mostly leftover control and there is no recipe but this is how I made it.

Ingredients: (for the soup)
4 Renkon balls, cut in half
Half package of brown shimeji mushroom, root end removed and separated
1 inch daikon, peeled and drained
1 spring onion, finely chopped
Cooked udon noodle, amount arbitrary, this was leftover

For broth:
2 cup Japanese broth (from dashi pack)
1 tbs each of  sake and mirin
1/4 cup of x4 concentrated Japanese noodle sauce (or taste)

Directions:
Add the ingredients for the broth in sauce pan and heat to simmer
Add the grated daikon, renkon balls and mushroom and simmer.
Add the noodles and scallion
Serve while hot*

* as I mentioned, I made this ahead of time and reheated before lunch. That was a mistake, the renkon balls absorbed the broth and mostly disintegrated. Nonetheless it tasted good and the addition of grated daikon added flavor and cut the oily taste from the renkon ball.

Tsukune with Lotus Root and Perilla 蓮根大葉つくね

This is a hybrid of “Renkon Tuskune”  蓮根つくね and “Tsukune with perilla” つくねの大葉焼き. Since our perilla is growing profusely in our herb garden, we are using perilla leaves whenever we can.  This is also the last segment of fresh lotus root we got from Weee asian grocery delivery service. We found that we could make the lotus root last longer by separating the fresh lotus root into its individual segments, wrapping the segments in paper towel and vacuum packing them. With this preparation they last for a long time under refrigeration (at least 1 mouth or more). Beside using a slice of the lotus root as a base for the Tuskune, I also included chopped up lotus root in the tsukune itself to give it nice crunch without using chicken cartilage. The perilla leaves add an additional unique flavor.

I served this with “kinpira” braised lotus root 金平蓮根 I made to finish up the last of the renkon. I also served simmered “kabocha”  かぼちゃの煮物 Japanese pumpkin.

Ingredients:
8 slices of lotus root, skin peeled and sliced into (4-5mm) thick plus two or three slices chopped up (to mix into the tuskune itself)
8 perilla leaves (if too large cut in half to make 8 pieces)
4 oz (114 gram) of ground chicken (this was low-fat breast meat ground chicken)
1/2 tsp ground ginger root
1/2 tsp ground garlic
1 tsp mayonnaise (optional, to compensate low-fat ground meat)
1 tsp miso
1 tbs “katakuri-ko” potato starch
1 tbs vegetable or olive oil

Directions:
In a bowl, mix the chicken, ginger, garlic, mayonnaise, miso and chopped up lotus root. Mix well by hand until the mixture is elastic and binding together (if too loose, you could add potato starch, if too stiff, you could add a beaten egg)
Coat the slices of lotus root with the potato starch thinly (to improve the adhesion of the meat mixture)
Place 1/8 of the chicken mixture onto the lotus root on the cutting board and press lightly so that the mixture will go into the holes of the lotus root.
Place the perilla leaf on and press lightly so that it adheres to the meat mixture (see below)
Add the oil to a non-stick frying pan on medium heat, and start cooking the lotus root side down first (see below) and cook a few minutes or until the lotus root browns a bit
Gently turn it over and turn down the heat to low and cook a few more minutes with the lid on for the last 2 minutes to make sure the meat mixture is cooked through.
Optionally you could add a mixture of mirin and soy sauce at the end but I did not.

Drain excess oil on a paper towel.

This tsukune is seasoned enough for us but you could add “Yakitori sauce (equal mixture  of mirin and soy sauce) ” as mentioned before. This re-heats nicely in a toaster oven. It is a nice contrast in textures and taste. The chicken portion is almost fluffy in texture which is a nice contrast to the crunch of the renkon on the bottom layer and distributed through out the meat. The perilla adds a nice fresh minty spiciness.

Root Vegetable Stew 根菜の煮しめ

“Nishime” or “Nitsuke” 煮付け, 煮しめ is a type of traditional Japanese cooking method in which food items are simmered in seasoned broth. I have posted many variations mainly based on what was simmered in the seasoned broth. I understand that there are differences between “Nishime” and “Nituske” but that is too esoteric for me. The broth can be based on either vegetarian (kelp, dried mushroom and vegetables) or more commonly including  bonito flakes, kelp, and other dried fish. The basic seasonings are soy sauce, mirin, sake or sometimes sugar. Food items in nitsuke could be vegetables especially root vegetables, mushrooms, fish cakes, tofu, chicken or fish. I made this because I had a package of boiled renkon lotus root 蓮根 which I needed to use. I also got assorted frozen fish cakes for oden and boiled frozen “satoimo” 里芋 taro root (this is the first time I got this, I usually get fresh ones and prepare them myself) and also a package of “shirataki” noodles tied into a knot called “musubi-shirataki” 結び白滝.  Using these ingredients, I made this without much effort. It was nothing special but a homey, gentle and comforting dish. The picture below shows daikon (left), renkon (center), satoimo (bottom left), fish cake (bottom righ). I also added blanched green beans and carrot.

The layer below shows three different kinds of fish cakes (straight chikuwa ちくわ), chikuwa with squid ika-chikuwa イカちくわ, ganmodoki がんもどき(all cut in half) and a knot of shirataki “musubi-shirataki 結び白滝”. Please notice, the taro “satoimo” is perfectly shaped since this is frozen packaged one.

Using prepared vegetables and assorted fish cakes, makes it much easier to make this dish. Beside using prepackaged items, the recipe is essentially the same as I previously posted.

Lotus Root Ball Soup 蓮根団子スープ

When I get fresh “renkon” 蓮根 lotus root, I have more choices as to what kind of different dishes I can make than when I just have boiled packaged renkon. Fresh renkon is usually available during the winter months. We can now get fresh renkon from Weee but the amount is rather large. So I have to come up with different ways to use it before it goes bad. Unlike boiled renkon, fresh renkon can be grated producing a starchy puree which  makes a good base for dumpling-type dishes, either boiled or fried. This dish is one of those grated/starchy/puree dishes and can be done only with fresh renkon. Actually, this is the second time I made this dish. The first time, I followed the recipe but the renkon balls did not hold together especially when I put them in the soup. So this time, I made it following my own (culinary) instinct which included using more ground chicken than what the original recipe called for. The renkon balls formed nicely and were very tender.  I made the rest of the soup with ingredients I had on hand. We had this as a lunch and it was rather filling and great.

Ingredients:

For renkon balls (made 8 small balls)
One segment of fresh renkon, peeled and grated, extra-moisture squeezed out (about 200 grams)
200 grams of ground chicken
2 tbs chopped scallion (3-4 stalks)
2 tbs potato starch
1 tsp soy sauce


For soup
300 ml Japanese dashi broth (I used two kinds of dashi packs, one was kelp and shiitake mushroom, the other with bonito for this)
3 tbs or more x4 concentrated Japanese noodle sauce (or soy sauce and mirin) to taste
1/2 package of shimeji mushroom, root end removed and separated (any mushroom will work)
5-6 blanched green beans, cut on the bias
2-3 tbs dried wakame seaweed,
(optional) (freeze dried)mistuba and (frozen) zest of Yuzu citrus.

Directions:
Mix all renkon ball ingredients in a bowl and mix well until it sticks together. Using a small ice cream scope, make small balls. Heat up the broth, put in the renkon balls and simmer for 5 minutes or until done. Take out the cooked renkon balls and set aside.
Meanwhile, add the mushrooms to the remaining broth and simmer for 4-5 minutes, add the renkon balls (I added 4 for 2 servings), the green beans and season with the noodle sauce to taste. I added the wakame, some yuzu zest and mitusba to the bowls. Place two renkon balls in each bowl and distribute the soup and remaining ingredients.

This was a really good soup. I think the amount of ground chicken the original recipe calls for too little. I made the balls with about the same amount of ground chicken as grated renkon which worked much better. Anything can be put into the soup but the mushroom and wakame seaweed worked well.

Lily Bulb 百合根

I keep finding Japanese groceries at Weee  which previously were just not available or difficult to get. This time, it was “edible lily bulb”*. The package states “this is a product of China”. So, initially, I was not sure this item would be the same as Japanese “Yuri-ne” 百合根 but decided to try it anyway. Growing up in Hokkaido 北海道, Japan, which is the major producer of edible lily bulbs in Japan, my family enjoyed “yuri-ne” often. Most commonly, my mother made chawan-mushi 茶碗蒸し or Japanese steamed savory egg custard with yuri-ne lily bulb. I remember the nice texture and sweet flavor of yuri-ne. So it is a very nostalgic flavor for me that I have not tasted in a very long time. It arrived fresh in a vacuum packed container. It looked exactly like Japanese “yuri-ne and (better yet) tasted the same.

Although the package indicated “slices”, the lily bulbs are made of petal-like multiple layers which can come apart especially after blanching (see below). I would have preferred a whole intact bulb since that would have given me more choices in how to prepare it but this will do for sure.

*Digression alert: There is a myth that all lily bulbs are toxic which apparently may be based on the fact that any part of lily is highly toxic to cats (inducing renal failure). Also, the name “lily” is attached to many plants/flowers which are not “true” lily.  Some of these certainly would be toxic to humans. In any case, Japanese and Chinese (reportedly also native American Indians) enjoy eating lily bulbs.

I made three dishes; “chawan-mushi” 百合根入り茶碗蒸し(center bottom), bainiku-ae 百合根の梅肉和え (dressed in pickled plum sauce, upper left) and goma-ae 百合根の胡麻和え (dressed in sesame sauce, upper right). I also served lotus root kimpira “renkon-no-kimpira 蓮根のきんぴら(left bottom) and “ohitashi” edible chrysanthemum or “shungiku-no-ohitashi” 春菊のお浸し (right bottom). The fresh lotus root and edible chrysanthemum both came from Weee.

The picture below shows the chawan-mushi made with yuri-ne, topped with ikura salmon roe and blanched sugar snap. You cannot see the yuri-ne well but two are peaking out on either side of the ikura.

The next picture shows the chawan-mushi before the toppings were put on. I put the yuri-ne on the bottom as well as on the top. Other items included fresh shiitake mushroom, and shrimp as usual. The egg and dashi mixture was my usual 1 to 3 ratio. There is no difference in how to make it from standard other chawan-mushi.

For next two dishes, I quickly blanched the yuri-ne, drained it and let it cool before proceeding.

One pickled “umeboshi” plum, meat removed and then chopped fine with  a knife, then placed in a Japanese “suri-bachi” mortal, 1/2 tsp mirin added, 1/2 soy sauce and ground to make a smooth paste. I added “kezuri bushi” bonito flakes (the amount arbitrary). I added more bonito flakes on the top.

The below picture shows yuri-ne with sesame dressing.

For sesame dressing:
1tsp white roasted sesame, dry roasted in a dry frying pan and then ground in a suri-bachi
2 tsp white sesame paste or “shiro neri-goma” 白ねりごま
1 tsp rice vinegar
1 tsp sugar

I garnished it with blanched sugar snap

These small dishes were nice and Weee made it possible for me to make these. These were quite filling but we also had a small serving of blue-fine tuna sashimi (frozen Australian from Great Alaska Seafood). The chawan-mushi was particularly special since it brought back good memories of the chawan-mushi my mother used to make.

Pork belly and diakon simmered in miso 大根と豚バラ肉のみそ煮

 We have been getting gourmet meat such as duck and lamb from D’Artagnan. This time, we got an email promotion from them for pork belly from young pig called “porcelet”. Since we have not had pork belly (from adult pig or otherwise) for sometime (we usually get it from Whole Foods), we decided to give it a try. It arrived hard chilled with skin on. It was also much larger than we expected. Although the ad said it was 6 lbs. it was essentially half of the entire belly and we realized that in its present shape it probably would not fit in our freezer so I immediately divided it into three portions. I vacuum packed and froze two and thawed one. I made several dishes from the one piece I thawed. One dish is shown below. I thinly sliced a small portion while it was semi frozen. This preparation is called “buta-bara komagire” 豚バラ細切れ and is usually used to “season” other ingredients, mostly vegetables, rather than served as a “meat dish”. I used it to make a Japanese style miso simmered dish with root vegetables. The original recipe came from erecipe, a Japanese recipe site. One evening I served this dish (left) with dashi-maki omelet, rapini buds (substitute for “nanohana” 菜の花 dressed in mustard-soy sauce or “karashi-jouuyu” 辛子醤油 and skinned Campari tomato.

Ingredients:
150 gram (1/3 lb) Pork belly, thinly sliced
1 carrot, medium, peeled and cut into bite size (“rangiri” 乱切り).\
Lotus root (renkon), I used frozen already cut ino slices, I used 4 which was cut into half circle.
1/3 Gobo burdock root, skin scraped off and cut into bite size (“rangiri”), soak it in vinegared or acidulated water until use (this is my addition since I had some left over gobo)
1 small piece of ginger root, skin scraped off and cit into julienne.

Pre-cooked green beans or other greeneries

oil for sautéing (I used peanut oil with  a dash of dar sesame oil)

Simmering liquid
150 ml Japanese both
3 tbs sake
1 tbs mirin
1 tbs sugar
2 tbs miso
1 tsp soy sauce (this is added at the end of cooking)

Directions:

Add the oil to a pan and sauté the ginger until fragrant. Add the pork and cook until the color changes

Add remaining vegetables and cook for few more minutes.

Add the simmering liquid (sans the soy sauce)

Cover it with either a parchiment paper lid or “otoshi-buta” 落とし蓋 on low flame for 20-30 minutes and the liquid reduces by half.

Remove the paper lid and mix the contents of the pan

Add the soy sauce and green beans

Pork and miso are a good (and classic) combination. The ginger flavor also goes well. This is Japanese home cooking and is very satisfying. It goes well with sake or rice.

Octopus rice 瀬戸内海蛸めし

 We have been getting Japanese rice from the New York Rice factory. It may be hard to believe (we our selves are somewhat incredulous) that there could be such a difference in something as subtly flavored as rice but the rice from the rice factory is really good. It is hard to identify what sets it apart from the rice we used to get but in general we really like the texture, the taste and especially how well it can be reheated and still tastes like it just came out of the rice cooker.

 Whenever I order rice from the rice factory I usually supplement the order with other items. In the past, we got a kit to make “red snapper rice” or “taimeshi” 鯛めし, a type of seasoned rice famous in the Japanese inland sea area or "seto-naikai" 瀬戸内海.  Another time I ordered a similar seasoned rice kit made with octopus called “seto-naikai tako-meshi” 瀬戸内海蛸めし. After I bought it, however, the kit sat in our pantry for some time. When I checked the expiration date, it had expired the previous month, so I decide it was time to make it as a shime 〆 or ending dish one weekend. The kit came in several pouches; one with seasoning sauce, one with small bits of octopus, one with freeze dried items. It also included a rectangle of kelp. I made the octopus rice according to the instructions. I served it with a side of simmered Japanese root vegetables I had made and salted cucumber, daikon and nappa cabbage or "oshinko" お新香.

 

The octopus was in really small pieces as you can see on the top of the rice in the next picture. I used a one to one mixture of glutinous “mochi” rice 餅米 (called "Hakucho" はくちょう or swan from Hokkaido and regular "uruchi" rice うるち米 called "Yumepirika" ゆめピリカ also from Hokkaido. (These two rice varieties came from the Rice Factory.) 

The simmered vegetables included shiitake 椎茸 (from dried and hydrated), "renkon" レンコン lotus root, "gobou" ごぼう burdock root, carrot, small bamboo shoot "or sasatakenoko" 笹筍 and konnyaku or konjack 蒟蒻.

The next picture shows the modified "oshiko" salted cucumbers and other vegetables I made. I modified the original recipe by increasing the salt from 2% to 3% weight of the ingredients and adding a small amount of Vodka. As a result this dish lasts much longer than when I made the 2% salt version.

This octopus rice was ok but we thought the tai rice 鯛めし was better (the octopus pieces were really  very minuscule). My wife said that the seasoned rice I make including chestnut rice 栗ご飯 and matsutake rice 松茸ご飯 are better and there is no reason to buy seasoned rice kits. In any case, this was a nice "shime" dish.

Happy New Year 2022 明けましておめでとう 2022.

Happy New Year 2022! The pandemic still persists with the Omicron variant making it debut and spreading so quickly just when we thought things were starting to come under control and using a quote from the movie Jaws "it was safe to go back in the water again".  In any case, both my wife and I took all the precautions; being vaccinated and boosted. We sincerely hope we can get past this soon.

This is the year of tiger according to Chinese/Japanese zodiac signs. We thought we had a larger tiger figurine but these are what we had. The two shown below look somewhat like cats rather than tigers.

The one shown here really looks like a tabby cat. It is made of carved wood and is one of a full set of the 12 zodiac figures we got in Kyoto on one of our trips to Japan. This year, I decided not to get "Kagami-mochi" 鏡餅 new years decoration since we generally do not finish the round mochi inside. 

When it comes to traditional Japanese New Year food, we look forward to and revel in the routine (or some may call it a rut) that we've developed over the years. First off is the expectation of the wonderful goodies contained in the Sushi Taro Osechi 寿司太郎お節 on 12/31/21 or "oomisoka" 大晦日 in Japanese.  Picking it up on New Year eve is an excursion we generally look forward to, although it is a bit of an arduous drive going into town and back. It was especially so this year when we discovered various parts of the route were closed to cars that day and only open to bike traffic. But it was worth it. We will be hitting the Osechi box this evening. We established the tradition of having our usual breakfast with cappuccino and the choice of various holiday breads such as stollen or panettone for the first day of the new year or "Gantan" 元旦. Then, for lunch, we have the more traditional Japanese New Year soup or "Ozouni" お雑煮 as well as some of the auspicious foods served for the New Year as shown in the next picture.

The next picture is a close-up assortment of "good luck" foods I served.

Some came from the Osechi box such as the fish cake 紅白蒲鉾 (#3) (since I did not get any red and white fish cakes this year), small fish じゃこの有馬煮 (#1), shrimp 小海老甘露煮 (#2) and black beans 黒豆 (#5). This year I was lucky to be able to get salted herring roe or Kazuniko 数の子 from the grocery section at Tako Grill. The amount was not too much and just right. I prepared kazunoko marinated in sake lee and miso かずのこの粕味噌漬け(#4). I also served salmon kelp rolls 鮭の昆布巻き and the datemaki 伊達巻 New Year's omelet roll (#7) I like to make based on my Mother's recipe. I also served salmon "Russian" marinade 鮭のロシア漬け which again was something special my mother used to make. I made it some days ago, so it had cured enough to eat. I also served simmered root vegetables including the symbolic "renkon" lotus root, "kobo" burdock root, bamboo shoot and carrot (#9).

Now the "ozouni" New Year soup. New Year is the rare occasion when I use this genuine Japanese lacquerware bowl that my mother gave us many many years ago.

Although you can not see it, the "mochi" 餅 rice cake is placed in a deep fried tofu or "abura-age" 油揚げpouch. I usually seal the pouch with a kanpyo 干瓢 (or gourd peel) tie. But in recent years I have not been able to find kanpyo and I used up what I had for the salmon kelp rolls. So this year, I had to improvise by blanching a whole scallion and using that to tie the tofu pouch. Other items in the soup included shrimp (from Great Alaska seafood), chicken tenderloin from some sous vide chicken breast I made, and vegetables including shiitake mushroom, daikon, gobo, and carrot. For the green, I used rapini flower buds. The shrimp was particularly good. I poached them gently in the broth with the shells on for a few minutes, took them out and shelled them before placing them on the top of the soup.

As usual, I served "daikon namasu" 大根なます with "ikra"  salmon roe いくら and a slice of boiled octopus leg 茹蛸.

Another salmon dish is sautéed salmon in sweet vinegar or 鮭の南蛮漬け.

Although this was lunch, no New Year feast is complete without the symbolic libation of sake (Koshi-no-homare hiyaoroshi 越の誉　冷やおろし). We toasted 2022 with one glass each to commemorate the New Year. This was a good New Year lunch covering many good luck foods. Let's hope it portends similar fortune for the rest of the year.

“Shoga-yaki” ginger pork bowl “tei-shoku” lunch 豚の生姜焼き丼定食

A few weeks ago, my wife suggested that it has been quite a while since we had sukiyaki すき焼き and it would be nice to have some. I agreed, but when I went to the Japanese grocery store, I forgot to get the frozen "Sukiyaki meat" すき焼肉. So, the next time I went I was proud of myself for not forgetting the meat. But apparently I picked up the wrong thing. My first clue was when my wife said, “I didn’t know sukiyaki is made with pork, I thought it was beef.” Instead of sukiyaki beef, in my haste I had picked up thinly sliced pork for "shouga-yaki" 生姜焼き. Since this package was next to the "shabu-shabu" シャブシャブ beef, I assumed it was also beef but for sukiyaki. In my enthusiasm I bought not one but two packages of the stuff. All was not lost, however, as I may have mentioned before, in Hokkaido 北海道, where I am originally from, many families use pork instead of beef for sukiyaki as was the case in my family. So, we went ahead and used one of the packs of pork to make sukiyaki. It was not good. The pork was too lean and too thickly cut. It got hard when cooked as sukiyaki. (So note to self: next time when at the Japanese grocery store get appropriate sukiyaki beef). Meanwhile, since I had bought two packages of this pork, I had one package left and it was clear that it would not be used for sukiyaki. So, one weekend I decided to use the pork as originally intended and made “shoga-yaki” ginger pork. Pork shoga-yaki 豚の生姜焼き is a very popular dish in Japan. When I was a college student, coffee shops near the university served lunch in addition to tea and coffee. In addition to  “Western-style” lunches such as sandwiches or spaghetti, most of the coffee shops also served Japanese-style  bento 弁当 or teishoku 定食* and shoga-yaki was among the popular ones. I am sure this has not been changed even now.

*Digression alert: I am sure it is no need to explain “bento” but here it goes anyway. When “bento” is served in restaurant/coffee shop, it is usually a lidded rectangular box which contains the entire meal but unlike pre-packaged bento, the rice and dishes are warm or just made. "Teishuku" (please follow the link for illustrated guide) is the Japanese concept of a "complete" meal or "meal set" which includes a bowl of  rice, soup, tsukemono 漬け物 (pickled or more likely salted vegetables), main dish (protein) and small "kobachi" 小鉢 side dish or bowl. In many "Taishu-shokudo" 大衆食堂 or "public" eateries which serve those who want drinks with food and those who want a complete meal, many different teishoku are available (the main protein dish varies and can be grilled fish, sashimi, or meat etc) but the remaining items, or “sides” such as soup, tuskemono, are usually the same for each available teishoku. The main and side dishes can be had as a single dish without other items (this is great especially if you are just drinking). It could also be "teishoku" for the price of a few more yen. 

So, this is  my rendition of "shoga-yaki" donburi teishoku 生姜焼き丼定食. In this case, the main protein and rice were combined as a donburi.

The main dish shown in the next picture is a bed of rice to which I added pork shouga-yaki with onion, seasoned shiitake mushroom (this was from dried shiitake and seasoned in "ama-kara" 甘辛 or sweet and salty with mirin and soy sauce) and blanched broccoli.

Miso soup is wakame ワカメ sea weed, "abura-age" 油揚げ fried tofu, silken tofu 絹ごし豆腐 and chopped scallion ネギ.

The "Kobachi" side dish was simmered root vegetable including "renkon" lotus root, "gobo" burdock root, "takenoko" bamboo shoot, shiitake mushroom, and "konnyaku" devil's tongue and blanched sugar snap in salt broth.

The tsukemono is cucumber, daikon, nappa cabbage, jalapeño pepper, and ginger (I salted this a bit stronger than I usually do; with salt 3% of the weight of the veggies instead of usual 2% and also added a dash of Vodka which makes it last much longer without changing the taste. (With this preparation it can easily last for at least one week in the refrigerator).

How to make pork shouga-yaki ginger pork (Although I posted "shouga-yaki" over 11 years ago, this time,  I am using a more appropriate, albeit not perfect, cut of meat). I am sure that there are so many variations and preferences and, of course, you could use other meat such as beef but this is what I made.

The essence of this dish is thinly sliced meat sautéed and seasoned sweet soy sauce flavored with ginger. Using lean meat can make tough shouga-yaki and using fatty cuts such as thinly sliced pork belly will prevent that but the traditional cut to be used is "pork roast" meat 豚のロース cut thinly (thin enough but not paper thin).

Ingredients:
Thinly sliced pork, 4-5 slices for one meal size serving (in Japan, specially packaged "shouga-yaki" pork is available widely. The one I got here is a bit too lean, the perfect cut has more fat. I used the entire package which is about 20 slices).

2-3 tsp neutral oil

Onion slices, optional

For marinade:
Mirin, soy sauce, and sake (1:1:1) ratio, enough to marinate the meat plus more to add while cooking.
Grated ginger (amount arbitrary, totally depends on your taste, I used whole grated ginger but you can use just the juice from grated ginger).
Dash of dark sesame oil
(optionally, grated onion).

Directions:
Marinate the meat. The amount of the marinade is enough to cover all meat slices and a bit more (additional 1/4 cup). I marinaded for 1 hour in the refrigerator.
I drained the marinade (the excess marinade reserved) and spread the meat slices on a paper towel to remove excess marinade.
In the non-stick frying pan, add 2 tsp neutral oil on medium flame. 

Add onion slices and cook until soft and somewhat transparent, set aside

Cook the meat slices, spread out without over lapping, in batches. One side 30 seconds and the other side 15 seconds. Do not overcook (the meat will finish cooking when cooked with the marinade later).
Set aside the cooked meat slices.
When all the slices are cooked, add the marinade to the pan (if not enough add more sake, mirin and soy sauce).
Add back the cooked meat with the accumulated juice and the onion .
Quickly cook and coat each slice with the marinade. Take it out and set aside.
Since I was planning to make a doumburi, I added a small amount of water at the end and heated the marinade to make sauce.

Assembly:
Top the rice with the shouga-yaki pork slices (I used 3 slices per bowl).
Pour in the sauce from the frying pan (just slightly moisten and season the rice).
Add any other garnish or topping (such as ginger julienne in vinegar or "benishouga" 紅生姜). I added seasoned shiitake mushrooms and blanched broccoli.

Compared to the sukiyaki we made with this pork, the shouga-yaki came out much better. The meat was tender and well seasoned. Perfect lunch for the weekend.

Chicken and chestnuts stew 鶏肉と栗の煮込み

For some years we have gotten fresh North American chestnuts from California. It is a lot of work to peel/clean chestnuts. It is particularly hard to remove the internal brown membrane or “shibukawa” 渋皮 that extends into the meat of the chestnut and is a particular characteristic of North American chestnuts.  The chestnuts we got from California last year were a bit disappointing. They were kind of dry and chalky. So this year we got prepared chestnuts in a jar. According to the label they appear to have been packaged/processed in France but the chestnuts themselves originated in unspecified EU countries. It said “roasted chestnuts” but in fact they were steamed. When we opened the jar, many of the chestnuts were fragmented with a few whole intact chestnuts tucked in at the top. They were not sweetened and tasted fairly good with nice texture**. So I decided use the chestnuts for this stew dish I saw on line. Since I had leftover daikon and burdock root I need to use up this recipe was a perfect choice. Although the recipe calls for “renkon” 蓮根 lotus root, I did not have it. I made this one weekend morning and served this as a lunch with kinpira-gobou 金平牛蒡 and rice.

**Interestingly, my wife discovered while eating the dish I made that several of the chestnuts indeed had the internal  brown membrane. These membranes were left in the nut and the nut was just processed as if they weren’t there. It was a rather unpleasant surprise to bite down unexpectedly on the hard shell-like substance. After that she recommended checking the chestnuts as they come out of the jar and if necessary dismantling them to remove any membrane left. We saw this as a sloppy element of the processing. 

Not all the items I put in the dish are seen in the picture. I also put in konjack or konnyaku こんにゃく．The seasoning is typical Japanese but the kobou flavor comes through strongly. While simmering, the chestnuts broke into large chunks but tasted good.

According to the recipe the chicken was to be cooked in water with sake and scallion before adding to the rest of the ingredients. I would have just put the cut up chicken into the stew. I suppose this extra process would reduce “chicken-ness”.

Ingredients (at least 4 fairly good size servings).
For pre-cooking of the chicken
Two chicken thigh, bone removed (I left the skin on) .
2 tbs sake
2 scallions
several slices of ginger
12000 ml water

For stew
2-3 inch daikon, peeled, cut into 1/2 inch thick rounds and then quarters
2-3 carrots, peeled and cut into bite sized pieces (“rangiri” 乱切り cut at 45 degree angle as you rotate the carrot)
1/2 “gobou” burdock root, skin scraped off using the back of the knife and also cut into bite sized pieces using “rangiri”
2 inch long renkon, skin peeled and cut into 1/4 inch thick half moon (I did not have renkon).
1/2 Konnyaku, torn into small bite sized pieces by hand (irregular shapes increase the surface areas), parboiled and drained
10-15 parboiled green beans
12-15 chestnuts (original recipe calls for roasted and sweetened chestnuts called “Tenshin amaguri” 天津甘栗.

For cooking liquid
250ml of the water in which the chicken was cooked
250ml dashi broth
100ml sake
3 tbs mirin
3 tbs soy sauce
1-2 slices of ginger cut into julienne

Directions:
For pre-cooking the chicken
Add the sake, ginger and scallion to the water and let it come to a boil then place the chicken into the water.
Turn down the flame to simmer and let it cook for 5 minutes and then turn off the flame. Let it stand for 15 minutes (the original instructions said cook for15 minutes but I thought that would be overcooking especially since the chicken will be simmered again with the vegetables).
Take out the chicken and cut into bite sizes pieces.
Keep the water which was used for cooking the chicken to  cook the vegetables.

For stew
Add the chicken cooking liquid to a pan
Add the chicken, vegetables and konnyaku
Cook them on medium high flame
Once it starts boiling, turn down to simmer, add the chestnuts and cook for 20 minutes.
Add the green beans in the last 5 minutes.

This has a typical Japanese flavor profile. I am not sure pre-cooking the chicken is necessary. The prepared chestnuts had a natural sweetness and the entire dish was really nice if not outstanding. The quality of the jarred chestnuts was not the best we have ever had but it was still a lot easier then trying to process the raw chestnuts and tasted better too. 

Matsutake from Maine メイン州からの松茸

We have been getting fresh Matsutake from the Oregon mushroom for many years and I have made all the dishes I can think of. This year when I looked on their web site matsutake was listed “out of stock”. So I decided to look into alternatives sources. I found fresh matsutake available from Maine at a site called  “Foraged”. It appears this is the web hub for individual foragers. I ordered some matsutake from the site and ours came from a forager in Bangor, ME. One of the forager’s ad even states “Picked to order”. I did not know Maine has matsutake (I know Oregon and Colorado produced North American Matsutake). Oregon mushroom has different grades for matustake and I have been getting “grade #1” which has unopened caps. “The Foraged” did not have different grades.  As shown in the picture below what arrived were large with opened caps (These are after I cleaned). 

Because of the open caps and gills, it is a bit more difficult to clean and also had more “worm holes” than the ones from the Oregon mushroom.

I had posted all matsutake dishes I can think of as I mentioned earlier. I prepared the classic dishes from the Maine matsutake such as “Matsutake rice” and “Grilled matustake on a toban yaki grill”.

This Maine matutake had good flavor and we had a "Matsutake feast" one evening which included  "Matsutake toban-grill” 松茸の陶板焼き, "chawan-mushi" 松茸の茶碗蒸し, "Dobinmushi-like soup" 松茸の土瓶蒸しもどき and ended with "Matsutake rice" 松茸ご飯 . 

The below are the first group of matsutake dishes. Since I could not get a Japanese citrus called “Sudachi” スダチ, which is typically used with matsutake dishes, I used wedges of lime which is closest among the readily available citrus.

I cooked touban-yaki on the stove with the lid on so the matsutake grilled and steamed at the same time keeping the aroma in. I happended to get shell-on ginko nuts or “ginnan” 銀杏 from Tako Grill, which I prepared a few days before, I coated the nuts with salt and grilled them with the matsutake. 

This chawan-mushi is mostly matsutake and a few ginko nuts and shelled edamame, and small chunks of shrimp. I also added chopped chives since I had it.

I also served edamame.

Then, I served the matsutake soup somewhat like a traditional “dobin-mishi” but since I do not have proper "dobin" 土瓶 I made dobin-mushi -like soup in a mini-donabe.

For the broth, I made #1 broth or "ichiban dashi" using kelp and bonito flakes. I also added steamed renkon ball, shrimp, daikon, carrot, shelled edamame and ginko nuts.

The matsutake-rice was prepared the night before. So I just microwave but it came back really nicely. So we think this feast did justice to the celebration of autumnal dishes ushering in the new season.