Baked shiitake mushroom stuffed with pork 椎茸の豚肉詰めオーブン焼き

This is a dish I made from the leftover gyoza stuffing from making teba gyoza 手羽餃子. I happened to have fresh large shiitake mushrooms (about 3 inch diameter) and decided to stuff them with the gyoza stuffing and bake them. This is a variation of the dish I posted before. Becase the mushrooms were very large and meaty, this dish came out very well. I again, served this with a side of Sriracha hot sauce.

Pork stuffing: I used up a bit over half of the gyoza stuffing left over from making the teba gyoza.

Shiitake mushroom: I found these large fresh mushrooms in our near-by gourmet grocery store a few days ago and bought them thinking I would make some kind of stuffed and baked dish. I washed and removed the stem and squeezed out the extra moisture. I put a small amount of olive oil in the cap (which was promptly absorbed) and simply stuffed the caps with the gyoza mixture (left upper in the image blow).

I baked them in a 400F toaster oven for 30 minutes (right upper and left lower in the image above). Some juice, which was nicely seasoned, came out. I cut the stuffed mushrooms in half showing the bottom shiitake and top gyoza stuffing (right lower in the above image).

I served this with some of the juice accumulated in the bottom of the baking dish and a side of Sriracha hot sauce. The shiitake mushrooms gave a nice meaty texture which soaked up the meat juice. This is a very satisfying dish. 

(A few days later we made a meal by combining several of these left over stuffed mushrooms with the barbecued gyoza chicken wings--it was a mighty fine combination).

Although this will go with any drinks, we were having this with an interesting Sonoma red blend called "The Barrister 2010". They equate this to Orin-Swift "The prisoner", which we rather liked (I am not sure the "Barrister" was so named because they were comparing this wine to the "Prisoner" and indicating "barrister" is better than "prisoner"???). This is a red made of many varietals but the kitchen sink. Although I could not find what kinds of grapes were in it, we definitely tasted and smelled black pepper indicating a good amount of syrah component. This is a good food wine and great with the this dish.

"Teba gyoza" stuffed chicken wings, baked and BBQed 手羽餃子オーブン焼きとバベキュー

Sometime ago when I posted "Teba Gyoza" 手羽餃子, which was deep fried, I promised that I would try baking or grilling it to see what happens. Finally I had a chance. Here I cooked teba gyoza two ways; the left in the image below was hot smoked/grilled using a Weber kettle and the right baked in a toaster oven.

The version which was hot smoked/grilled in the Weber kettle looked much nicer with its mahogany color, crispy skin and juicy meat stuffing inside with a good smoky flavor (below).

The oven baked one was not bad at all either, although it did not look as good and lacked the smoky flavor.

Although the preparation process is almost identical to the previous post, I added more visual aids.

Gyoza stuffing: I did not use boiled shredded cabbage this time. As usual, I made the hand chopped ground pork from the trimmings of two pork tenderloins. This time I weighed the trimmings and they were 12 and 3/8 oz (or about 300 grams). I mixed in garlic chive (from our herb garden, finely chopped, 2 tbs), scallion (finely chopped, 2tbs), ginger (1/2 tsp, grated or from the tube), garlic (1/2 tsp grated or from the tube) salt (1/2 tsp), sesame oil (1-2 tbs), black pepper (1/2 tsp) and soy sauce (1 tsp). I mixed them well by hand until the texture was elastic and holding together (#1 in the image below). Half of this amount was sufficient to stuff 6 wings (i.e. this amount would be sufficient for 12 or more wings).

Preparation of the chicken wings: This is the most tricky step. I started with cutting around the bone (humerus) to separate the meat from the bone (#2). Holding the end of the bone in vertical position, I scraped the meat from the bone until I reached the joint (elbow joint equivalent). During this process, I made sure not to poke any holes into the skin. I then grabbed the bone and, with bending and twisting motions, removed the bone from the joint (#3).  Before stuffing, I put my finger into the cavity and separated the skin and and bone as much as I could without breaking the skin and stuffed the cavity with the gyoza mixture (#4).

Using a tooth pick and a sewing motion, I closed the opening (#5). I prepared 6 wings (#6). More than half of the gyoza stuffing remained which will be used for another dish.

Baking: The first day, I baked the wings in a 450F toaster oven for 30 minutes turning them over once after 15-20 minutes.

Hot smoking and grilling: The next day, we barbecued two whole chickens in our usual way. I added teba gyoza to the area of indirect heat and cooked for 30 minutes. I used hickory wood chips soaked in water for hot smoking.

Either way, the teba gyoza were great. They were much better, in fact, than the deep fried ones. The hot smoked version is better in appearance and flavors of the two but the baked one is much easier to cook.

Here is the cross section showing the gyoza stuffing in the baked version. This is a great dish for beer and sake. Since the stuffing is well seasoned, there is no need for a sauce but I served this with a side of Sriracha hot sauce. If you like spicy flavors, this really enhances all the flavor of this dish.

P.S. The leftovers heated up very well in the toaster oven but the difference between the baked and hot smoked versions became more pronounced, i.e., the hot smoked ones were much better or even better than when they were originally cooked since reheating in the toaster oven made the skin really crispy. Now my wife is asking how many wings I can prepare and cook at one time in the barbeque.

Grilled soft shell crab ソフトシェルクラブの炭焼き

One nice sunny weekend, we stumbled onto a new farmer's market set up in the parking lot of a near-by strip mall. We bought some herbs to plant in our herb garden, nicely sweet and ripe strawberries, hot-house tomatoes (not as good as true summer tomatoes) and a few more items. One of the vendors was a fish monger selling fish from a refrigerated truck. Since they had soft-shell crabs, we could not resist and bought two.

Since it was such a nice sunny day, not too cold not too hot and no overt signs of mosquitos, we really wanted to stay outside. So, we decided to grill the soft-shell crabs instead of cooking them in our usual tempura method.

I somehow forgot to put my camera on "macro" mode and all the pictures I took except for the one (above) were out of focus and I cannot show you what the final servings looked like.

As usual, I started lump charcoal in a chimney starter and use our "Yakitori" grill for this. For basting, I made a mixture of melted butter (non-salted) and olive oil (about 1:1). I heated up the butter and olive oil for a few minutes and added finely chopped shallot. I then seasoned it with black pepper, salt, lemon zest and lemon juice and let it cool down to room temperature.

I brushed the butter mixture on the top side of the crabs and started grilling with the top side down (left in the above picture). After 4-5 minutes when the skin of the crabs turned red and blackend in spots, I basted the underside with the butter mixture and turned it over and cooked another 4-5 minutes (right in the above picture).

Although my picture did not turn out and I cannot show what the final servings looked like, I precut the cooked crabs and served it with grilled asparagus (using the same basting mixture) and grilled tomato halves (skinned, salted and coated with the same butter mixture) and a wedge of lemon. As usual, I also made grilled rice balls as an ending dish with cucumber slices in vinegar dressing with "jako" 胡瓜と雑魚の酢の物.

Although grilled soft-shell crabs are not bad, the skin does not get as crispy as in tempura and we both agreed tempura is the best way to enjoy soft-shell crabs. While edible, the crabs did not entirely meet my wife's standard of freshness, so we will probably not be buying anything else from that vendor. But, at least, we were outside cooking and enjoying the food and wine al fresco.

Shredded carrot salad with Italian chicken tenderloin 人参のサラダ、鶏の笹身イタリアンソテー

This post is not for the chicken tenders but for the carrot salad which was made by my wife. She made it in a rather large quantity so that we could eat it as a "side" with our lunches during the week at work. She is known to have made shredded carrot salad in the past. It was one of the dishes she served when she first invited me for dinner to her apartment ions ago. Back then she used a blender with a bit of water to shred carrots but now she uses a food processor. As a accompaniment for her carrot salad, I made Italian style chicken tenderloin.

Chicken tenderloin: I used three tenderloins for two small servings. I just seasoned them with salt, pepper, dried basel and oregano. I then dredged in yellow corn meal and fried them in olive oil.

I have to ask my wife to fill in for this quite nice shredded carrot salad.

Again this is a recipe based on the one for spiced carrot salad found in the "500 appetizers" cookbook. As usual we could not resist making variations. I shredded a large bag of carrots in the food processor. (Cook the carrots in batches in the micro wave for 30 seconds, stir and cook about another 30 seconds until the carrots get a bit tender but still have crunch).  Then I made a dressing of: 1/2 tsp. ground ginger, 1 tsp. cumin, 1/2 tsp ground coriander, 1/2 tsp paprika, 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper, finely chopped candied ginger to taste, 4 tsp. sushi vinegar, 3 Tbs. olive oil, 2 tsp. chopped mint. I also added about 1 cup of raisins and the juice from 2 limes. I mixed all the spices together with the liquid ingredients and poured the dressing over the carrots and raisins. I let it sit for several hours for the flavors to marry (as a matter-of-fact the salad gets better every day). 

The sweetness of the carrots combined with the raisins and the dressing make a very sweet/savory combination. Over time the carrots exude juice which blends with the dressing. It is a great way to eat your veggies. 

Anchovy and black pepper cookies アンチョビ黒胡椒クッキー

One weekend, my wife was looking through a cookbook titled "500 appetizers". She disappeared into the kitchen and came back with "Anchovy and olive tepanade cheese dip". I asked how many anchovies she used knowing how hard it is to use up an entire tin of anchovies. She said the can was empty but I had to wait until tomorrow. The result is shown below. It looks like a perfectly innocent sweet butter cookie but it delivers quite a surprise. It has the texture and crumb of a sugar cookie but it is savory; with the pleasant salty taste of anchovy, pepper and Parmesan cheese. This is certainly not for desert or an afternoon snack but goes surprisingly well with red wine.

I asked my wife for the recipe.

The cookie dough: 1/2 cup all-purpose flour, 1/4 cup butter chilled, 1/3 cup freshly ground Parmesan cheese, 3 anchovies drained, 1/2 tsp. ground black pepper. Process in a food processor until the ingredients come together into a dough. Make into a ball, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate (my wife chilled it over night). Roll out the dough to about 1/2 inch thick (picture 1) and cut into various shapes with a cookie cutter (picture 2). Put on a lightly greased cookie sheet (picture 3) and bake in a 400 degree oven for about 6 minutes until golden brown (picture 4). 

These are not the cookies to serve with coffee to the bridge club, but as an hors o'dourve accompanied with a full bodied red wine they are very special.

Cheese dip with anchovy and olive tanpenade アンチョビとオリーブ タンペナーデ ディップ

When I made salt kelp cream cheese dip, we were quite impressed with how well the salty kelp flavor went with the cream cheese. When my wife saw the recipe for this cream cheese based olive tanpenade in the "500 Appetizers" cookbook, she must have thought this would compete well with the salt kelp cream cheese.

I asked my wife to fill in here. 

This is based on the recipe in the book but I made some modifications.  Unlike my husband, I followed the recipe. Turned out the initial concoction was too salty to our taste. My husband suggested I add more cream cheese which I did. In addition, I found a log of fresh goat cheese and threw that in too. This made the spread better--his cooking technique tends to be more successful than mine. 

This is the recipe I ended up with. The tepanade: 1 cup of mixed black and green olives, 1 garlic clove, 3 anchovies, 2tsp capers, 1-2 tbsp olive oil, black pepper (to taste), lemon juice (to taste), 1 package of 1/3 fat Philadelphia Cream cheese, 1-13 oz. log of goat cheese. Put all the ingredients in a food processor and blend until it forms a smooth puree. 

The olive and anchovy's saltiness was diluted by the cheese but we could still taste both the olive and anchovy flavors with just enough saltiness. On a cracker, this goes so well with wine. Of course we were drinking reds with this but probably any white wine would work as well.

Sunset at the restaurant on the beach

We were recently on an island in the Caribbean which has achieved notoriety for the notable disappearance of several young ladies. We are pleased to say that we returned after one week of sun, surf, warm weather and cobalt blue water. It was almost like a real life "ground hog day" experience. Every day much the same as the previous day--same weather, same cobalt blue sea, same fellow in white shorts and tennies greeting us to place our same 4 allotted towels under our allotted palapas (grass huts that provide shade). Having said that, there is no doubt that the beaches are spectacular. 

We had dinner at a restaurant that was literally on the beach. The restaurant specialized in fish--fresh fish to be exact (what other kind would a restaurant advertise?) During the day it is a beach much like any other on the island; with palapas and sun bathers lounging under them. In the evening the lounge chairs are removed and the dining tables and chairs are brought out.  As a matter of fact as we were being seated at our ocean side table another waiter was surreptitiously removing the towels and swimming paraphernalia of a guest who had left them behind unaware of the transformation that occurred to the beach at sunset. There is little that can describe the freedom of sitting at a table with your bare feet planted in cool fine white sand watching the sun sink into the ocean in a display of pastel pinks and blues. The dinner did not disappoint. The appetizer of shrimp kabob on lemon grass  was flavorful and the shrimp were impeccably fresh and succulent. One dish was local grouper, the other was chilean sea bass. The grouper was the better of the two dishes. Chilean sea bass?? We don't entirely understand the dearth of local fish available on Caribbean islands where fish are literally swimming with the guests just off the beach. But local markets or restaurants do not appear to have any local fish to sell--somehow salmon and tuna do not strike us as local fish.  Someone told us that if we went to a nearby dock in the late afternoon when the fishing boats came in we could buy fish right off the boat. We went to the dock but there were no boats, no fishermen, no fish. Joke on us? We noticed this absence of fish as pervasive to almost all Caribbean islands we have visited (an N of 4). We speculate that fishing may not pay as well as working in the tourism industry, to which we are contributors. In any case, the fish at this restaurant was good and with our bare feet firmly planted in sand not even Anthony Bourdain could not say food served under these conditions "sucks". Aaaah, the joy of a vacation on a tropical island!