Marinated Salmon and salmon roe “Oyako” rice bowl 鮭のマリネといくらの親子丼

I still had some leftover Russian marinated salmon from the New Year. One evening I made this small "donburi" 丼 as an ending dish. In Japanese culinary parlance, "Oyako" 親子, meaning parents and offspring, denotes dishes in which both offspring (eggs) and parent (meat) are used in the same dish.  The most common is a combination of egg and chicken in a donburi called "Oyako donburi" 親子丼. Another rendition is the combination of salmon (grilled, cold smoked, or sashimi) and salmon roe "Sake Oyako donduri". Since I had marinated salmon and I prepared Ikura in sake and soy sauce a few days ago, I came up with this dish.



I just made vinegared rice, added nori strips and julienned perilla leaves, I then placed Russian marinated salmon and onion and topped it with Ikura in soy sauce and sake.

The combination of saltiness with vinegar flavor both from the rice and the marinated salmon works well.

"Kuromame" black beans in Greek yogurt 黒豆の水切りヨーグルト和え

Kuromame 黒豆 or "black beans" are practically only eaten as part of the New Year’s dishes. Reportedly, it is not related to Western "black beans" but are a type of black soybean (Recipe in English is also found here). I have not ever prepared New Year’s black beans myself but instead bought them from the Japanese grocery store. More recently, they have been included in Sushitaro Osechi.  Although we always enjoy kuromame on new year's day, we tend to forget we have kuromame and find them much later tucked in the back of the refrigerator. I saw an interesting recipe to use kuromame on the Internet and decide to try it.



I did not do a good job presenting this dish (some embellishment such as some parsley etc would have helped) but it is too late.



I used Greek yogurt (or you can drain regular yogurt to make “greek” yourself). Using my own instinct, I added a bit of good fruity olive oil and salt to the yogurt and mixed in the cooked black beans.

It tasted good but I  mainly tasted the Greek yogurt. The black beans added texture and some sweetness in contrast with the sourness from the yogurt. This is a good way to finish off the kuromame .

New Year's eve soba noodle from Sushi Taro Osechi 寿司太郎の年越しそば

This should have been posted earlier but somehow got delayed. New year's eve soba noodles or "Tosh-koshi soba"年越しそば appears to be a common custom in Japan (with about 57% of the population participating according to Japanese Wikipedia). When I was growing up, however, our household did not have this custom at all. We usually had a feast on New Year's eve that did not leave any room to eat soba even if we wanted to. It appears that the custom started in Edo period 江戸時代 for good luck/longevity (longevity because soba is thin and "long" and to "cut" bad fortune from the previous year as soba is brittle and easily can be cut). In any case, Sushi Taro Osechi also included hand cut or "teuchi" 手打ち "Toshikoshi soba". We were too full to eat this on the New Year's eve but we ate this as a  lunch on the second day of the New Year.



There appears to be many variations of toshikoshi soba (cold or hot in a broth etc), I made it to "zarusoba" ざるそば as you see above. ("Zaru" means "bamboo basket" as the noodles are served a special flat bamboo basket or in a special container like I used).

The Sushitaro soba came in a separate box with instructions. According to Chef Kitayama's description, it was made from specific soba and wheat flours produced in Hokkaido. A pieces of kelp and "Katsuobush" 鰹節 dried bonito flakes (real "MaCoy", probably shaving from the ends of the dried bonito or katsuobushi were included and were perfect to make dashi). I followed the instructions and prepared the soba and dipping sauce. For garnish, I served thinly sliced scallion and nori strips. I also added Japanese red pepper flakes ("Ichimi tougarashi" 一味唐辛子)



The noodles had a nice al-dente texture and we enjoyed it although it was not the "end-of-the-year" but "beginning-of-the-year" soba.

Kampachi collar dressed in grated daikon カンパチかまのみぞれ和え

The package of frozen amber jack collars I got from the fish for sushi contained three. I grilled all three in the toaster oven at the same time and served two. That left one over. A few days later, I decided to make this dish. I briefly warmed the fish up in the microwave oven and asked my wife to debone it (since she is the resident expert in this area).



I mixed the fish meat with grated daikon (drained), (the amount is arbitrary) and soy sauce. I garnished with finely chopped chives.

As a small starter dish, this is simple and good.

Grilled Amber Jack collar カンパチのカマ焼

One of our favorite dishes at Tako Grill is grilled "Hamachi" collar and whenever it is available we order it. We have found frozen Hamachi collar at the near-by Japanese grocery store but it happened only once. When we got frozen tuna and kampachi sashimi for "Fish for Sushi", they also had "Kampachi" collars カンパチのかま so we ordered them along with the sashimi fish.

Since it has been bitterly cold in Washington, DC, grilling these small items on a charcoal grill outside in the evening was out of the question. Not to be deterred, I decided to grill them in our toaster oven (on "broil" mode). Half way through the cooking, it started smoking. “Eau de Fish” started permeating the house. On my wife's advice, I hastily moved the entire toaster oven under the hood vent for the stove and turned the vent on high. The smoke cleared and I managed to finish the cooking (see below).  Next time, I will move the toaster oven under the hood from the start. (Born of necessity we actually found a method to cook other “smelly” items in the toaster oven such as roasted Brussels sprouts which taste good but leave the house smelling of sprouts for days.) I served this with grated daikon and wedges of lemon. It is not as oily as Hamachi but almost equally good. Since it is smaller than Hamachi collar, I served one each.



One package contained three collars (see below). I thawed them slowly in the refrigerator (for 2 days). I salted them and started cooking them on the meat side using the toaster oven on broil after 7 minutes I turned them over so it was skin side up. That’s when it started smoking. After moving the toaster oven under the hood, I continued broiling for another 7 minutes until the skin was crisp and brown and the meat was done.



Japanese kitchen stoves usually have a "fish grill" which appears to do a better job than my toaster oven. But we will be prepared next time, the toaster over will go under the hood the minute I even think of broiling fish.