Grilled Tofu, shiitake mushroom, and rice balls 焼おにぎり、焼しいたけ、焼き豆腐

This is continuation of our ad hoc grilling one fine fall day. These are the ending dishes. After enjoying grilled squid and capelin with roe, we grilled tofu with miso sauce, large thick and meaty fresh shiitake mushrooms with soy sauce and mirin and our usual grilled rice balls.  I prepared the tofu by wrapping it in paper towels, sandwiched it between two plates with a weight on top. I left it in the refrigerator for several hours to remove extra moisture. I probably should have brushed the tofu with oil since it tended to stick to the grill.

After the surface of the tofu developed a nice char mark, I flipped it over and smeared on the miso sauce (mixture of miso, mirin, and sugar  with micro grated zest of lime). After the other side was grilled, I briefly (30 seconds) grilled the side with the miso sauce  and served.

I put the mushrooms gill side down on the grill. After several minutes, I turned them over and added soy sauce and the mirin mixture on the grilled side of the mushroom. Then I added finely chopped scallion. The mushrooms absorbed the sauce adding to the flavor. While we enjoyed the grilled tofu and shiitake mushrooms, as you can see, the rice balls were getting cooked.I grilled the rice balls with all sides and they developed a lovely crunchy crust. I finished it with the miso sauce.

We really enjoyed grilling outside and when we finished, it was completely dark and we were basking in a warm red light of our infrared heater. This was definitely a bonus grilling day which we enjoyed.

Grilled Capelin with eggs 樺太シシャモ焼

“Shisamo” シシャモ is rather specific to Hokkaido but the vast majority of fish label “shishamo” is actually capelin or Karafto shishamo 樺太シシャモ.  The lovely autumn day we had our impromptu grilled marinated squid, I also grilled shishamo or capelin.

The shishamo which we can get at the Japanese grocery store is usually slightly dried and frozen. Although I could have cooked them in a frying pan or toaster oven, charcoal grilling adds an additional flavor dimension to the fish and is one of favorites.

This is the first time I noticed that the package was honestly labeled as Canadian Caperin with roe or “komochi karafto shishamo” 子持ちからふとししゃも  (see below). There must be a new regulation and enforcement to label the  origin of the food items.

In any case, this capelin with its roe was very good. We served this with a small mound of grated daikon or “daikon oroshi” 大根おろし with soy sauce. This was very good indeed.

Grilled marinated squid 炙りイカ

I had a large frozen squid in my freezer and it had been living there for some time。My wife complained it was taking up too much space and it was time to evict it. I decided it wasn’t getting any better with age so I used it one weekend. This squid was identical to the one I used to make “squid rice”. I cleaned the innards and cartilage and removed the dark thin membrane of the skin. I removed the fin (“enpera” えんぺら), separated each tentacles, and cut the body into rings. When I prepared it, I thought I would make fried squid rings (breading with panko bread crumbs and deep fried) but the day turned out to be a nice sunny but cool fall day. We figured the cool weather would keep the mosquitoes relatively inactive. Conditions were perfect for cooking the squid on our small Japanese Yakitori grill. Because the squid was going to be grilled, I marinated it for several hours in an equal mixture of soy sauce and mirin and added grated ginger root.

The picture below shows the squid when it came off the grill. The legs were particularly good, not too chewy.and perfectly cooked.

This was also the first time, I used the Looftlighter to start the charcoals for the Yakitori grill (below). I just made a mound of charcoals in the middle and started the fire. Since I did not have to transfer the lit charcoal from the chimney starter, it was much less dangerous and much easier.

The below are marinated squid parts.

The squid cook rather quickly.

I turned them over after 1 minute or so and the squid rings firmed up and showing nice char marks. Another minute should be enough.

The squid was very good especially with cold sake.It was seasoned enough and not needing any sauce. Probably this was better than the fried squid rings I originally planned. With the help of the infrared heater, we stayed outside after the dark and enjoyed our grill (more items were grilled of course).

Sous vide oil poached salmon 冷製スービイサーモン

I have been experimenting with sous vide salmon for a while including the temperature and length of cooking time. The last post of olive oil poached sous vide salmon, I used 135F for 30 minutes. Next time I tried,cooking frozen and vacuum packed salmon at 130F for 1 hour. The result of this attempt was not as good as the first attempt and came out rather dry. This time, using the same type of package for the salmon I defrosted it in the package under running water and stored it in the refrigerator for several hours.  Then I sous vide the thawed salmon for 30 minutes at 130F. This salmon was seasoned with pepper, salt and dried dill and vacuum packed in olive oil so the salmon was essentially oil poached.


This time, it came out very moist. Actually, when I tried to removed the salmon filets from the bag, they were so soft  they started to fall apart.. I briefly seared one side only (it was not possible to flip them over without having them completely disintegrate). We first ate it warm and it was very nice. I did not take any pictures.

The above picture is left over cold salmon served with other vegetables a few days later.  As a cold salmon, it was excellent. The vegetables are
1. Boiled (cold) green beans with sesame dressing.
2. Branched broccoli sautéed in olive oil and garlic dressed with grated Parmesan.
3. Taro Okamoto's cauliflower
4. Wedge of skinned tomato seasoned with smoked sea salt
5. Japanese-style sweet pickled cucumber.

We served salmon cold with a mixture of mayonnaise, Greek yogurt and Dijon mustard. This was rather healthy dish with lots of vegetables. Broccoli cooked with garlic and parmesan cheese went particularly well .

Ricotta Pudding リコタチーズのプデイング

Deserts are not a regular part of  a Japanese meal so I am not a dessert eater. Although I generally don’t eat dessert.  I found a Peanuts cartoon I saw many years ago particularly relevant. In this cartoon Snoopy is lying on his dog house musing “Dogs don’t eat desserts but we like to be asked”.  I concur; I don’t eat desert but I like to be asked. My wife, on the other hand is a dessert devotee. As far as she was concerned, it was a fundamental part of dinner when she was growing up. It was the prototypical parental bribe to get her to clean her plate as in “eat all you dinner or you won’t get desert”.  So even in adulthood, she relates to the expression “life is short eat desert first”.  She also knows that if she wants desert she has to make it herself…although I have been known, when enticed, to eat what she makes. So one evening, she whipped up this pudding. It is actually the filling for a sweet ricotta filled roll which you will see in another post. But it works well as a stand alone.


Ingredients:
1 cup ricotta cheese
1 egg yolk
1/8 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/4/tsp vanilla or almond extract
handful of raisins.

This is fairly easy to make. She mixed all the ingredients together (first picture below). She put them into individual ramekins (second and third picture) and then cooked in the toaster over at  350 degrees for 20-25 minutes (fourth picture).


This is a lovely light desert. It has a very pleasant texture, mild vanilla flavor and is not too sweet. Perfect for that person who likes to end a meal with a bit of sweet flavor.