Asparagus stir-fry アスパラガスの炒め物

In our regular grocery store, we often find bags of colorful mini sweet peppers. My wife likes these peppers especially broiled with the skin and seeds removed. It is a bit of effort to prepare them this way.  I broil them in the toaster oven then place them in a Ziploc bag to steam. Once they have cooled I remove the skin and seeds. Despite the work, they are nice to have around because they are flavorful, colorful and when added to a dish can add a nice bright note. I made this dish just to use up some left-over vegetables  (I had green asparagus, some shimeji mushrooms, Campari tomatoes and the prepared mini sweet peppers).   I also added scrambled eggs for additional color. I did not follow any recipe.

I was not sure how I would season this dish when I started making it, Chinese? Italian? I ended up just using salt and pepper and let the vegetable flavors speak for themselves.

I used my wok and everything came together quickly.

Ingredients:
5 fresh green asparagus, woody bottoms removed and skin of the bottom half peeled, tips cut across, and the stalk sliced on a bias.
1 small onion, halved and cut in thin strips.
1/3 package of shimeji mushroom, root potion removed and separated.
4 skinned Campari tomatoes, cut into quarters.
1 Jalapeño pepper, seeds and veins removed and finely chopped.
4 prepared mini-sweet peppers (see above), cut into thin strips.
1/4 tsp dried red pepper flakes.
1 tbs olive oil
2 eggs (for scrambled eggs, optional).

Directions:
I heated up the olive oil in a wok and added the red pepper flakes until the oil was hot.
I then added the onion and the Jalapeño pepper and stirred until the onion was slightly brown for 5 minutes, then add the asparagus stems and cooked for another 3 minutes. I added the asparagus tips, the shimeji mushrooms, the sweet peppers and the tomatoes.
I seasoned it with salt and pepper and cooked it for another 3-4 minutes.

The red pepper flakes and the jalapeno pepper gave a mild slow heat. You could taste all the flavors from the vegetables which also gave the dish a slight sweetness. This was a good side dish.

Crab cake sushi クラブケーキちらし寿司

 I made crab cakes, using a recipe I posted some time ago . From one container of crab meat,  I made 5 cakes. We ate two immediately but three were left (see below). This time, I made the crab cake with sautéed onion, shiitake mushroom, jalapeño pepper and fresh dill. I also added Meyer lemon zest (micro-grated), lemon juice and seasoned it with a splash of Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper and bound it with panko, dijon mustard and mayonnaise.

Since we had gotten the crab meat to make California roll, my wife suggested we could (sort-of) stick to our original objective by using the crab cakes to make scattered sushi ちらし寿司. Also, we had discovered, on our last trip to Japan, that ingredients such as tuna salad made with mayonnaise work really well with sushi rice. So since the crab cakes included mayo, my wife thought they should work well over the sushi rice. She made fresh rice for the occasion and I made it into sushi rice.  First, I warmed the crab cakes in the toaster oven and the broke them into small chunks on the sushi rice.

Taking the cue from California rolls, I also added cubes of avocado, dressed in lemon juice and a bit of mayonnaise.

Since perilla has started coming out in profusion in our herb garden, I added a chiffonade of perilla 青じそ.

Finally, I topped it with thin strips of nori.

We had this on our day off as an ending "shime" dish. As my wife predicted this was really good. We thought that since it was a shime, the amount of rice may be too much but it tasted so good we couldn't stop and ended up eating the whole thing. As opposed to just using crab meat as is done with classic California roll, using crab cake added more complex flavor dimensions and texture.  For this, we switched to our "Tengumai daiginjo" sake 天狗舞大吟醸酒.

Spinach and mint cake ホウレン草とミントの緑のケーキ

We posted green pancakes made with a combination of spinach and mint and we really liked them. We had some left over spinach that we had to use up. In addition, the mint was growing profusely in our garden. My wife found a recipe for cake made with spinach and she decided to make it. That took care of the spinach. Then she remembered the spinach mint pancakes and decided she would get the mint somewhat under control by substituting some mint for some of the spinach in the recipe. The cake is a bit like green tea cake  in appearance but the taste is completely different--and it is really good.

My wife made icing from cream cheese and honey.

The icing is not too sweet but added a nice taste and texture.

Ingredients:
1 cup raw spinach (packed) (or skip the spinach and replace it with 1 cup mint)
1 cup raw mint (packed)

3 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup olive oil
2 tbs. lemon juice
2 cup flour
3 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt

Frosting:
1 block of Philadelphia cream cheese
1/4 cup honey
1 tsp. vanilla


Directions:
Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl and then set aside (#1).  Put the spinach, mint, eggs, vanilla, lemon juice and sugar in a blender and puree. Then with the blender on a slow speed add the olive oil to make an emulsion (#2). Add the vanilla and mix in. Add the spinach/mint mixture to the flour (#3 & #4).  Put into a greased 6" x 8" inch baking pan that has been lined with parchment paper (to made it easier to get the cake out of the pan when it is done #5.) Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes or until a tooth pick comes out clean (#6).

Frosting:
cream the cream cheese in a mixer. Add the honey and the vanilla and continue creaming until it becomes light and fluffy. Slather it on the the cooled cake.

This is a great cake. As with the green pancakes, the mint flavor predominates and is very refreshing. This is not too sweet and we had this even as a breakfast and was great with coffee. Although my wife found another way to use our prolific mint, it is still taking over.

Uni Miso Ika Zuke 雲丹みそいか漬

This blog is to highlight another item called "Uni Miso Ika Zuke"雲丹みそいか漬 that we got from Maruhide (shown in the little round dish on the right). We got it just before New Year with some other items including fresh uni. We finished all the other items sometime ago. I rediscovered this one "hiding" in the freezer and decided that unlike wine, frozen fish generally doesn't improve over time so it was time to open the jar and taste the contents. We had it as a starter with cold sake one weekend evening.

"Uni miso ika zuke" is similar but different from squid "Shiokara" 塩辛 or "Shutou" 酒盗.  The "sauce" is concentrated uni sea urchin. The below is the description from the Maruhide web site.

"Maruhide's "Uni Miso" is Sea Urchin paste made with California Red Sea Urchin. Steamed at low temperature to condense to 1/2 of its weight, to make it rich and flavorful. The combination of "Uni Miso" with Sashimi grade Mongo-Squid ("Ika Zuke") makes the perfect complement for sake."

We wholeheartedly agree with the statement. It has a concentrated uni flavor but not too salty and the squid has a nice "sashimi"-like texture. This is indeed perfect to go with sipping cold sake.

I added few other items from my usual stash. From left back clockwise; chicken tsukune square つくね (instead of making into into a ball or sausage shape of tsukune, I put it in a baking pan and baked in the toaster oven at 350F for 30 minutes like the  other chicken squares I make. Since I had fresh garlic chives, I added them), blanched rapini dressed in mustard-soy sauce 菜の花の辛子醤油, blanched sugar snap marinated in seasoned dashi スナップ豌豆の塩びたし, simmered "Kabocha" pumpkin かぼちゃの煮物, Dashi-maki Japanese omelet with garlic chive だし巻き and spicy baked tofu ピリ辛とうふ.

We had this while sitting outside on our deck on one of the first warm days of spring which made it taste even better. Now we have two house sakes; "MU"daiginjo 大吟醸　”無” and "天狗舞”. Both are quite good with a bit more complexity in "tengumai".

Easter breakfast 2019 イースター朝ごはん2019

This is a sort of regular menu for Easter breakfast. My wife baked hot cross buns for Easter this year as usual but without the representative icing cross. Instead, she put icing on the side so that we could "smear" it on the bun however and wherever we wanted.  In addition, she made a new cream cheese based icing. She also has a collection of "bunny" plates (bunny seen here peeking out from behind the food) that add to the occasion.

To complete the spring theme, I made creamy scrambled eggs which was supposedly made by Chef Patrick O'Connor of Inn at Little Washington when Queen Elizabeth visited some years ago. Since I did not have green aspraragus, I garnished with blanched sugar snaps and rapini.

The hot cross buns are made with a recipe from King Arthur flour.

Instead of confectionary sugar icing, she made cream cheese based icing with honey and cinnamon.  This was much better and much easier to handle.

Ingredients for the icing:
1 package of Philadelphia cream cheese
1 tsp cinnamon powder
3 tsp. honey
3 tbs. butter

Directions: Cream the butter in a mixer. Add the cream cheese and mix until it is fluffy. Add the honey and cinnamon until completely blended.

This is not as sweet as a sugar based icing and it comes out like a spread so it is easier to use on the muffin. The cream cheese gives it a slight tartness offset by the honey. The cinnamon goes so well with the spices used in the hot cross buns. This is certainly something worth getting up for in the morning.

Chicken tulip drummets with Gorgonzola dip 手羽元チューリップとゴルゴンゾーラディップ

I have not made "Teba-gyoza" 手羽餃子 for some time but recently when I did a barbecue pork roast in the Weber grill, I also made teba gyoza.  I had to remove the drummets to make the teba gyouza, so, I used them to make these tulip of drummets.  Just as a minor variation, I marinated the tulips in "Shoyu ko-ji" 醤油麹 overnight before baking.  I did not make my own Shoyu koji but I used a store-bought package.

As before, I coated the tulips with yellow cornmeal and baked them in our toaster oven on convection mode at 450F for 15 minutes.

My wife made Gorgonzola dip for this, which worked very well.

For the Gorgonzola dip

Ingredients
1 cup blue cheese (gorgonzola) crumbles (about 4.5 oz)
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup mayonnaise
 1/4 cup Greek yogurt
3 tbsp buttermilk (or however much is needed to get the desired consistency)
1 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper

Directions:
Just mix and refrigerate before serving.

I served the chicken tulips with carrot and celery sticks. Deep frying may be better but high temp baking made it rather crispy on the outside. The dip went very well.  (We decided that if it was made with a looser consistency it would also make a nice dressing for salads). We are not sure that the "Shoyu koji" marinade made a big difference but the meat was reasonably tender.

Beginning of Hanami 2019 花見の始まり2019

Last year, in a nor'easter (winter hurricane) we lost the 30 year old cherry tree that formed a canopy over our deck and was the foundation of our hanami celebrations. Although we immediately replaced the destroyed tree with a new one it is "just a kid" (only about 7 feet tall). Although it is blooming it's little heart out it has some serious growing to do before it replaces the gap left by the tree that was destroyed.  Luckily we have two other cherry trees which were growing on the property when we moved in.  Some years all the cherry trees sing as a chorus; blooming all at the same time. At the other extreme, some years they perform sequential solos.  This year the small native cherry tree bloomed first. Last weekend, it was in it's full glory. Then the "kid" joined in for a duet. We are waiting to see when the last, oldest tree, will decide to make its voice heard.

The cherry tree blossoms were accompanied by the vibrant pink  of our plum tree. It usually blooms much earlier sometimes even in February. We actually have pictures from previous years of the blossoms covered in snow.  Between the cherry trees and the plum tree we decided there were enough pink blossoms around for us to have our first hanami 花見 or cherry (cum plum) blossom gazing.

So, our hanami appetizers for the evening are shown below. I served 5 appetizers in a 5 well rectangular plate. All except for the asparagus spears with sesame dressing アスパラの胡麻よごし are store bought. I added two more plates of appetizers rounding out the 5 to 7. My wife chose pink sake cups for both of us to commemorate the cherry blossoms.

The first two dishes are our usual ika-shiokara イカの塩辛 and ika-mentai いか明太子.

For the dishes shown below I blanched the asparagus and served only the tips for this dish. The sesame dressing was made using white sesame paste (from the pouch) and grated roasted sesame seeds, soy sauce, rice vinegar and sugar.  On the right is "spicy baby clams" which I bought in a plastic container from our Japanese grocery store. It is sort of Chinese flavor with rings of red "togarashi" red pepper and wakame (the root portion). It was quite good and not too spicy if you avoid the red pepper.

The last dish shown here (on the right) is Chinese-style squid salad which also came in a plastic container. All these small dishes were perfect for sake.

I also served my dashi-maki Japanese omelet だし巻き卵, Campari tomato, blanched broccoli and braised cauliflower.

The last dish is boiled octopus leg thinly sliced with su-miso dressing 酢味噌, thinly sliced and salted  cucumber and topped with "ikura" salmon roe.

These were just enough appetizers to honor the first hanami of the year accompanied by sips of cold sake.