“Raw” scattered sushi 生ちらし

I am not going to go into an anthropological discussion of Sushi 寿司 or 鮨. It has many different forms but the one common ingredient is "vinegared" rice or "su-meshi" 酢飯 or "sushi-meshi" 寿司飯.  An old form of sushi was salted fish and rice fermented for preservation without refrigeration. Lactic fermentation adds "acid" to the food, among other things, including an awful smell. A good example is "Funazushi" フナ寿司. We tasted this in the past but only as a very tamed version in a small quantity. The most common and popular form of sushi involves pieces of fresh raw or cooked fish without fermentation on a small ball of vinegared rice. This style originated in the Edo era (16-19 century) and was called  "Edo-mae-zushi" 江戸前寿司 or "Nigiri-zushi" 握り寿司.  Another popular style is rolled sushi or maki-zushi 巻き寿司 including hand-roll or "Temaki-zushi" 手巻き寿司. By far the most home-cook friendly type of sushi, however, is scattered sushi or "Chirashi-zuahi"  ちらし寿司. I have previously posted variations of chirashi-zushi. Here I made "nama-chirashi" 生ちらし(meaning "raw" scattered sushi) or "Kaisen-chirashi" 海鮮ちらし( meaning fresh seafood scattered sushi) for lunch one day. It consists of pieces of sashimi 刺身 topping a layer of venegared rice.



The slices of cucumber are genuine Japanese cucumber (not American mini-cucumber) and tasted better. I served this with miso soup (tofu, nameko mushroom).



Sushi rice: This was made from imported Koshihikari コシヒカリrice from Niigata, Japan (subject for another post). I seasoned it with sushi vinegar from the bottle.

Topping: All the pieces came from a toro block I purchased from Catalina. This toro block did not have any chiai 血合い. #1(in the picture below) is the pure fat just underneath the skin. This time I left a layer a few millimeters thick on the skin and then removed it as a single layer. I cut it into rectangles. #2 is the more traditional fatty portion or Ootro. I salted it and then torched it with my handy kitchen flame-thrower (no kitchen should be without it) to make "aburi" 炙り. #3 is medium fatty tuna or Chu-toro 中トロ. #4 is wild caught hamachi which was fairly lean rather than oily. #5 is uni and the slices of cucumber are Japanese cucumber I got from our Japanese grocery store.

I made a rather thin layer of sushi rice, covered it with thin strips of dried nori and put the sashimi and cucumber on top.  I happened to have Sashimi-jouyu* 刺身醤油 I made several days ago and painted it on each piece of sashimi with a brush. I served wasabi and additional sashimi-jouyu on the side.

* Sashimi-jouyu: You can buy this special type of soy sauce in a bottle or make it yourself. There are many variations. The most famous is "Tosa-jouyu" 土佐醤油. I used soy sauce, mirin, and sake (2:1:1) ratio and added about equal amounts of broth made from shaved dried bonito flakes or katsuo-dashi カツオ出し. I then simmered the mixture for 10-15 minutes until the amount reduced to 2/3. I placed this in a sealable jar in the refrigerator. The amount of each ingredient can be adjusted to your liking. Instead of bonito broth, you could use water (to make it "pure" soy sauce flavor). You could also use much less mirin and sake or even add sugar.

The pure fat layer was particularly good. Usually, this layer is very firm. I cut it into small cubes and dressed it in " sumiso" sauce but this time the layer was not too firm and melted in your mouth. This was a rather decadent lunch and we even had a bit of cold sake.

PA Dutch-style chicken and dumpling stewペンシルバニアダッチ風鶏肉とすいとんシチュー

Although my wife is not Pennsylvania Dutch, she grew up in a PA Dutch area in rural Pennsylvania. According to her, even in her grade school, the cooks were PA Dutch and, as a result, many of her childhood food memories are PA Dutch dishes and we posted quite few of these.

Recently, one of our friends asked if my wife could make a PA Dutch dish called chicken and dumplings and post it. My wife never mentioned this dish to me before and when I asked her about it her response was luke-warn at best. She knew about the dish but her childhood recollection was that is was BORING.  It appears that this was not one of her favorites. But recognizing taste can change over time with things cherished in childhood being less appreciated in adulthood and vice versa, she consulted her cookbooks and came up with this dish. Turns out that it is surprisingly flavorful and not bad especially for a dish involving "dumplings*".



I was amazed how much the dumpling swelled up.



All the final vegetables were freshly added after the broth was made from simmering the aromatic vegetables and chicken together.

* Dumpling, "Suiton" or すいとん (水団): Almost all cultures have some kind of dumpling which is essentially made from starch (flour or root tuber, potato starch and water to make a dough. The dough is formed into small balls or noodle-like strips then cooked in a soup or stew. Leavening agents, eggs, fat, herbs and other seasoning could be also added but the basic form was cheap and filling food meant to fill the stomach. In Japan, my parents' generation after World-war II, wheat flour ration (US army surplus) was often made into Japanese-style dumpling cooked in water/broth, which tended to bring up "bad" memories of the post war period for my parents' generation. The Japanese name "Suiton" literally means "water  dumpling". As compared with "noodles" made of flour, this type of dumpling is easier and quicker to make especially when you are hungry. Post-war Japanese generations which include myself may never have eaten this type of  "dumpling".

Here is my wife's version of PA Dutch chicken and dumpling stew. Originally a stringy old chicken would have been used. Or, as some recipes suggested, the carcass of the chicken served for Sunday dinner (chicken and dumplings was definitely a Monday i.e.not company, dinner). My wife chose chicken thighs because they do well when stewed. Also in an attempt to avoid the “boring” indictment she used chicken broth instead of just water called for in the original recipes.

Ingredients: (for 4-6 servings)
For Chicken and broth:
Chicken thigh: 4, skin on and bone in.
Chicken broth (or water about 2 quarts) to cover vegetables and chicken pieces.
Onion: 2 medium, coarsely diced
Celery: 4 stalk, coarsely chopped
Carrots: 4 large, skinned and coarsely chopped
Bay leaves: 2
Black pepper and salt to taste
Olive oil for browning chicken

For dumpling: (this makes lots of dumplings, you may want to adjust the amount proportionally)
Flour All purpose, 2 cups, sifted,
Salt 1/2 tsp
Baking powder 4 tsp
Parsley: fresh Italian parsley, finely chopped, 2 tbs or dried (2 tsp)
Black pepper to taste
Butter 3 tbs.
Egg, one large beaten
Milk 1/2 up to 2/3 cup, added in increments

Vegetables for the final stew:
Onion, 2 medium, medium dice, sautéed in oil.
Potato, 3 medium, skinned and cut into large cubes
Carrots, 4 medium, skinned and cut into bite size coins
Celery, 4 stalks, veins removed and sliced in 1/4 in

In a large sauté pan, add olive oil and brown the chicken. Deglaze the pan to get out all the fond. Sauté the onion until lightly golden.  Put all the vegetables, bay leaves, chicken into the pot. Pour chicken broth to cover (we used low sodium no fat Swanson chicken broth) and simmer for one hour with the lid on, removing the scum that may form on the surface several times.(#1) Let the chicken cool to room temperature. Remove the chicken from the bone. Discard the skin and set the meat aside. Strain the broth to remove all solids and set aside. Add the broth back into the pan (you could skim the fat).  Add the fresh vegetables for the final stew listed above (sautéing the onions until slightly caramelized). simmer until the vegetables are cooked (20 minutes or so) (#2).

For the dumplings sift the flour, add the baking powder, salt, parsley and pepper.  Cut in the butter using a pastry cutter (#3). Add the egg. Add enough milk until the dough is formed (as little kneading or mixing as possible) (#4). Using a small ice cream scoop (or two spoons), Drop a portion of dumpling dough into the gently simmering broth (#5). Put on the lid and let it simmer for 10-15 minutes. Do not remove the lid during this time. The dumplings swell up to fill the pot (#6).



To serve, Place the cooked chicken meat in a bowl and add broth, vegetables and one dumpling per serving.

This was much better than I expected—not the least bit boring. The broth was rich and very flavorful. All the onions and carrots added complexity and a slight sweetness. The chicken meat was also pleasantly flavored from the time spent with the veggies in the broth. Even the dumplings were good. They were light and fluffy on top and moist with the flavor of the broth on the bottom. They also served to thicken the broth. It was a complete and very satisfying meal. I am surprised to say that we will probably add this to our list of “regular” dishes.

Indian-style chicken curry with onsen egg and homemade naan 温泉卵いりインド風カレーと自家製ナーン

This dish was made from left over Indian-style chicken curry with tomato and cream that my wife made several days ago. The curry was mostly sauce with only a small amount of chicken left so I decided to supplement the protein with slices of barbecued pork and onsen eggs 温泉卵. I also served Japanese-style sweet pickles I made.



I should have garnished with something green before taking the picture. As you can see, the egg white is not completely congealed in the onsen egg but the yolk was cooked with nice creamy texture.



We pondered how best to warm up the home-made naan. We tried three different ways; in a toaster oven, in a cast iron skillet (with additional melted butter applied), and in the microwave. It turned out that the microwave (in a silicon microwave container, covered) is most convenient with a good result.

This somewhat eclectic supper was pretty good. Having home-made and frozen naan in the freezer is very convenient and went well with this Indian-style curry.

Pork belly and cabbage stir fry 三昧肉とキャベツの味噌炒め

When we got pork belly (again!) and made simmered "Kakuni" pork 豚の角煮, I took some of the raw meat and thinly sliced it to make this dish (about 1/2 lb, I think). This is called three-layer pork or "sanmai-niku" 三枚肉, which is a fairly common cut in Japan and many dishes are made using this cut.  Since I also had left over cabbage (1/2 of the inner portion after taking most of the outer leaves for coleslaw) and a bag of leftover watercress (which  would not last too long), I came up with this dish. I was hoping the pork belly would come out more crispy. My wife suggested that if it was crispiness I wanted I should try using bacon next time. I served this with sweet vinegar pickles of cucumber and quail eggs.



This was not bad at all but if you are eating this much pork fat, however, Kakuni is still the best way to enjoy this deadly delight.



Ingredients for two servings as a drinking snack:

Pork belly, thinly sliced about 1/2 lb
Miso  about 2 tsp
Garlic a small clove, crushed (or from a tube)
Cabbage 1/2 small inner portion, core removed and cut into 1/2 inch squares
Watercress two handfuls
Sake 2 tbs
Oyster sauce to taste

I first put the miso and garlic in a Ziploc bag and kneaded it to mix. I then put in the sliced pork belly and massaged to have the miso mixture coat the surface of each of the meat slices. I let it marinate several hours in the refrigerator.

I removed the slices from the bag and lined them up on the plate flat. I remove any large globs of miso if present. I cooked the meat on low heat in a non-stick frying pan with a mixture of olive oil and sesame oil turning once until the edges became crisp and the meat was cooked through (a few minutes on each side). I removed the meat and set it aside. Brown bits (mostly miso) were on the bottom of the pan. I added the cabbage to the same pan. After a few minutes of stirring, I deglazed the miso fond with sake releasing as much as possible from the bottom of the pan. I let this miso-sake combination cook until it became thick and coated the cabbage. I added the watercress and for good measure a small amount of oyster sauce (may not need it, optional) and stirred until the watercress wilted (30 seconds). I put the meat back in  the  pan, mixed and turned off the heat.

I thought about adding some sweetness (I was thinking of mirin) but, at the end, I did not. The miso and garlic flavor without sweetness made this dish perfect for drinking sake. We still prefer Kakuni pork belly but this is a good dish. The Japanese style sweet pickles really went well with this dish.

Colorful drunken tomato カラフル酔っ払いトマト

I have discussed this "drunken tomato" some time ago but it was not the main focus of that post. Since I found a bag of very colorful cherry tomatoes at the near-by grocery store, I decided to make drunken tomato. These are very colorful; red, green (ripe but green), brown (kumato), and yellow. I served the colorful drunken tomatoes in martini glasses with ice underneath to keep them cold.



I served this with a tiny bowl with salt (optional) and a toothpick. Of course some "juice" was also poured in.



The recipe is very simple.

Ingredients:
Cherry or grape tomatoes: Skin removed by scoring the bottom and blanching in boiling water for 10-20 seconds. Transfer them to ice cold water and after they have cooled, remove the skin.

Marinade: Either vodka or gin martini or straight vodka, enough to submerge all the tomatoes. This time I made vodka martini with a splash of dry white Vermouth.

I just placed the skinned tomatoes in the martini and chilled them thoroughly in the refrigerator for at least several hours but over night or longer is better. The tomatoes absorb the martini and martini absorbs a tomato flavor.

This is the perfect to start to a hot summer evening. We like to dip the tomato in salt (lightly) before enjoying but this is optional.

Kelp caviar 昆布キャビア

Many years ago, we came across a "vegetarian" caviar. This was produced by a now-defunct company in the Los Angeles area and, If I remember correctly, was invented by a cardiologist. I am not sure what it was made of (probably seaweed like the current version we are showing here). We were rather impressed with the similarity in appearance and texture to real caviar. When we ordered caviar last time (from finecaviar.com), I noticed they also had "Kelp" caviar and ordered some along with other items. We served the kelp caviar on homemade blini, with homemade creme fraiche garnished with the green part of scallion (we did not have any chives).



This kelp caviar came in a 3.5 oz glass jar. This is said to emulate the appearance and taste of sturgeon caviar.



When I opened it, I noticed it had more liquid than real caviar or the previous vegetarian caviar we had.



I drained the kelp caviar in a fine meshed strainer as seen below. After which it looked more like sturgeon caviar. By itself, it tasted like kelp (of course this is made of kelp) and lacked the good "pop" mouth feel of real caviar.



However, when this was placed on top of the blini with creme fraiche (see the first picture), the kelp caviar tasted more like real caviar. This was certainly not bad for fake caviar and will be very handy if you have vegetarian guests. Apparently other vegetarian caviar products are also available. Although we must say we prefer real fish eggs and caviar, these vegetarian caviars are cheaper, available year round, keep longer, and taste better than you think. I got the idea for a future dish; serving salted kelp 塩昆布 on blini and creme fraiche which may taste similar to caviar although the texture maybe off.

Melon bread /Sunrise bread メロンパン／サンライズ

My childhood memories growing up in Sapporo include a type of sweet bun/bread called  "kashi pan" 菓子パンor cake or sweet bread. Being a kid, sweet anything was preferable, although I did not particularly care for very sweet bread especially with a sweet filling. One of these is "Melon pan*" メロンパン.　Where I grew up, Melonpan was a round bun coated with crystalized sugar called "zarame" ザラメ 粗目 but no filling. Much later, I learned that there are quite a few regional variations to this bread. There is one variation called "Sun rise" サンライズ. What I had in Sapporo appears closer to "Sunrise" bread but it was called "Melonpan".  I read several extensive discussions on this subject in  the food anthropology column (in Japanese) I follow.

* "Pan"パン means bread in Japanese which apparently was introduced by Portuguese missionaries and the Japanese word "Pan" was said to have originated from the Portuguese word "pão".  The Spanish word for bread  is "Pan" and French is also close "Pain".

In any case, my wife developed a taste for melonpan on a recent visit to Japan. Melonpan is generally not available here so since she really liked it, my wife decided she would have to make it herself if she wanted to eat it.  I looked for recipes and the only ones I found were in Japanese. I selected one in Japanese and translated it for her. After some trial-and-error, she perfected her Melonpan recipe. Hers are not as sweet as I remembered and she does not use sugar icing. I found myself really liking her Melonpan. She tried making it several times--making ones with and without cream custard filling.  She found that covering the entire "bun" with cookie dough was rather difficult to do. Based on the "sunrise" bread she now only covers the top of the bun with cookie dough. This accomplishes the same effect but with much less effort. She also found that she has to use more flour than specified in the Japanese recipe. She surmised that the flour must be slightly different. She also found that the instructions for assembly in the Japanese recipe were almost impossible to do. So she developed a different method which is much easier and has more reliable results. 



She does not brother with scoring the cookie layer or garnishing with sugar. It naturally creates a "dry earth" pattern which looks good to us. Both types of buns, with and without custard filling are good but we like the ones with custard filling.



She makes 10 buns at a time and she freezes those we do not eat immediately. They warm up nicely in the microwave.

I asked my wife to fill in the rest.

These buns are a labor of love because they involve a lot of steps but for devotees of melonpan these are wonderful.

Ingredients (10 rolls):

Bread dough
Bread flour  344 g (or 2 and 1/4 cup)
Dry yeast 1 and 1/2 tsp
Butter 8ｇ(or 1/2 tbs)
Salt 1 tsp
Milk 50CC
Warm Water 150CC

Combine the milk, sugar, butter and salt. Warm the mixture to scald the milk and dissolve the sugar and salt and to melt the butter. Remove from heat a let it cool to room temperature. Proof the yeast in the warm water. Put half the flour in a mixer with a dough hook. Add the liquids to the flour. Mix adding more flour in small amounts until the flour reaches a smooth consistency and forms a ball around the hook. (as with all bread the amount of flour is variable. You may need to add a bit more flour to reach the right consistency). Knead in the mixer for 7 to 10 minutes. The dough should be very soft but not very sticky. Take the dough ball and put it into a bowl with a small amount of vegetable oil in the bottom. Coat the ball with the oil then cover and place in a warm place until doubled in size.

Cookie Dough
Cake flour 148ｇ (1 1/4 cups + 2 tbs)
Baking Powder  ½ tsp
Butter 60ｇ(or 4 1/2 tbs)
Sugar 50ｇ
Beaten egg 25ｇ
Melon oil (or vanilla essence)  3/4 tsp or to taste

Add the baking powder to the cake flour and put aside. Cream the butter and sugar. After it becomes fluffy and light yellow add the egg and beat until fully incorporated and fluffy. Add the vanilla and incorporate. Add the flour to the butter/egg mixture and quickly stir until just incorporated. The mixture should be soft and slightly sticky but should be firm enough to hold its shape and work with. If it doesn’t have this consistency add a bit more flour. I flatten the cookie mixture into a square sheet and wrap in plastic wrap. I put it into the fridge to cool completely.

Custard Cream 
Egg yolk (medium)  x2 (set aside)
Milk 200ml
Sugar 35g
Cake flour 26 g (or 3 tbs.)
Vanilla 1 tsp

Mix the milk sugar and cake flour in the top of a double boiler. When the mixture starts to thicken use several tablespoons of it to “temper” the egg yolks then add the tempered egg yolks to the heated mixture. Add the vanilla. Stir constantly until the mixture becomes very thick. Immediately remove it from the heat a put into a bowl. Cover the surface with plastic wrap to prevent a skin from forming while it cools. Set aside until completely cooled.

The custard has to be thick enough to hold its form when cooled—about the consistency of soft butter (see picture 2 below).

Assembly:
After some trial and error and several disasters trying to follow the method in the Japanese recipe,  I came up with this method which seems to work best. After the dough has doubled, deflate it and divide into 10 equal pieces (I do this by weighing the entire ball then dividing it into 10 pieces of equal weight. (cover with plastic wrap to keep moist). I divide the custard into 10 equal weights the same way. (notice the cream has the consistency of soft butter.  If the cream is too soft or runny, as it was when I followed the Japanese recipe exactly, it will run off the bread and the edges can’t be sealed). I also divide the cookie dough into 10 equal weight pieces.

I divide the 10 equal weight balls of dough in half. I flatten them into rounds as shown in picture 1.  I place the pre-weighed cream on one of the rounds shown in picture 2. I take the second round and cover the cream. I crimp the edges to seal (picture 3). I then take the pre-weighed cookie dough put it between two pieces of plastic wrap and using a small rolling pin make a round large enough to cover the dough (picture 5). I put the assembled bun on a cookie sheet far enough away from any other bun so the sides don’t touch after they rise (picture 5). I let the 10 assembled buns rise until almost doubled.

 

I bake them in a 350 degree oven for 20 minutes until they are lightly golden brown. These buns are wonderful. They can also be made without the cream inside. The cookie on top really makes them. They are lightly sweet and the custard has a wonderful vanilla flavor. They are a bit of work to make but worth every mouthful.