Grilled cheese sandwich with mushroom グリルチーズサンドウィチ

This is yet another version of breakfast that we came up with while we were on vacation. I was contemplating what to make when my wife mentioned she was in the mood for something ooey-gooey and cheesy…but we were eating too many eggs. Using what we had left over and with my wife's suggestion, I made this grilled cheese open face sandwich.



We had onion, leftover portions of royal trumpet mushroom, branched broccoli (which I made few days ago as a side for a dinner). So these were the items I used for this open-face sandwich.

I first sautéed the onion in butter and then the mushroom seasoned with salt and pepper. I lightly toasted the sliced "artisan Italian bread" and placed these vegetables on top (see below).



I placed several slices of aged cheddar cheese.



Placed under the broiler fro few minutes or until the cheese melted.



Before serving, I garnished it with grated parmesan cheese.

This was a good breakfast sandwich. Now only a few vacation days left, so we have to use up whatever is left in the refrigerator.

Croque monsieur クロックムシュー

Drinking morning coffee on the balcony while on vacation watching the sun rise out of the Atlantic ocean eventually burning through the clouds on the horizon I was suddenly inspired to make croque monsieur for breakfast.



What I came up with was a variation on the theme of French ham sandwich called "Croque monsieur". Last time we visited Paris and stopped at any bar for an afternoon "coupe de Champagne", we often had "Croque monsieur" as a snack (in fact that seemed to be the only thing on offer for an afternoon snack or a snack at any other time at the bars).  The ones we had in Paris were similar to what I made here but most of the recipes I looked at are double decker ham and cheese sandwiches. Mine was an single layer open-faced sandwich. I served this with slices of pan fried zucchini.



Ingredients for 4 slices of bread.

Bechamel sauce:
Onion: finely diced, (half, medium)
Flour: 2 tbs
Butter: 2 tsp
Oilve oil: 2 tbs (or 2 tbs of butter)
Milk: 1 cup
Nutmeg, ground, to taste
Salt and pepper to taste

The béchamel sauce was my usual relatively low-fat version. I sautéed the onion in a butter-olive oil mixture until the onion was cooked but not browned (3-4 minutes on medium-low heat). I then added the flour and kept stirring until the raw flour was all gone and the onion pieces were coated with flour. I added the cold milk at once and kept stirring until thickened. I added the seasoning.

Ham: I just used a good packaged ham cut into strips (4-5 slices, amount arbitrary) and, for good measure, some salami also cut into strips (optional).

Cheeses: Although Gruyere is the best cheese to use, I did not have it so I used a half and half mixture of aged cheddar and Jarlsberg (amount arbitrary), cut into small cubes (or grated).

Bread: Any good sliced bread will do but I used a bread labeled as "Italian Artisan Bead", 4 slices, lightly toasted.

After the ham and cheeses were mixed into the béchamel and the cheese melted, I spread the mixture on the bread and placed it under the broiler until it bubbled and brown spots appeared. I let it cool down a bit and served.



The bread crust got a bit hard but overall, this was quite good and gave our breakfast another interesting variation.

French toast with crushed honey sesame stick crust セサミステックフレンチトースト

We are again on vacation on the Atlantic ocean. One of the challenges cooking here is to make something good with limited resources available. In the past, my wife came up with a savory French toast with hot sauce. This time, she came up with this rather unusual but very successful French toast.  To add some sweetness and crunch, she (actually her sister) crushed honey sesame sticks (which my wife bought as a snack) by banging them with the bottom of the plate in a Ziploc bag. The idea was that the flavors of the honey sesame stick would add both sweet and salty dimensions with some sesame flavor and also a nice crunch. Since we did not have maple syrup, I also made a strawberry sauce. On the side, my wife made plain yogurt mixed with skinned and diced Asian pear. The combination worked very well.



This is not for just the two of us but we had two additional guests.



Egg liquid: Beaten eggs (4) with milk (2 tbs) without sugar or other seasoning.
Honey sesame sticks: coarsely crushed.
Bread: This one was labeled as "Italian Artisan bread", sliced.

1. Soak bread slices in the egg mixture for 10 minutes to let it absorb.
2. Dredge it in the crushed honey sesame sticks, pressing with your palm to make it adhere.
3. Fry it with melted butter on a non-stick frying pan on medium heat turning once (2-3 minutes each sides)

For strawberry sauce: Wash and remove the petal end and cut it into half or quarter. Add sugar (amount totally to your taste) and mix. After 10-15 minutes, juice/syrup will accumulate on the bottom of the bowl.




Although I was initially skeptical of my wife’s idea of using crushed honey sesame sticks it actually worked.

We were all impressed with how well this one turned out. Subtle sweetness from the honey sesame stick crust and the strawberry sauce was very pleasant and we did not miss the maple syrup. The added crunch was very nice. Again, this dish proved that necessity is the mother of invention.

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.