Sushi Burittos from Buredo 寿司ブリト

Sushi is very popular in US and can be found just about everywhere. But there is a wide range in quality and price; from "super market" sushi to "omakase". In addition sushi is undergoing a trans-formative evolution at the hands of this popularity. Unique sometimes outlandish, by traditional Japanese standards, sushi rolls have appeared and are extremely popular in sushi bars. Of course there is the grandfather of western-invented rolls, the California roll カルフォルニア巻き made with real or imitation crabmeat and avocado. Although not a native of Japan, it has apparently found a foothold and I hear that it is now generally available in sushi bars. (Although probably not in expensive traditional places). Recently I read some interesting articles in the Washington Post regarding something called  sushi burritos. It is a variation of burrito that is like a thick sushi roll that has not been cut into slices. It uses nori sheets with a thin layer of rice instead of a tortilla to hold together the ingredients rolled up in it. It is apparently taking off in a big way. One particular restaurant specializing in  sushi burritos just opened. It is called "Buredo" which was created and run by two Washingtonians as a healthy lunch alternative.  I don't think I would have gone there on my own to have a sushi burrito but a recent surprise party (I was completely caught by surprise) at work was catered from Buredo and gave me an opportunity to try out a sushi burrito.

It was quite a spread with all their regular menu represented. The picture below shows two different kinds; one is tuna and the other is vegetarian with tofu. The descriptions below are from their menu.

Hanzo (left 3 of the bottom and the second rows)
bright, fresh: yellowfin tuna sashimi, avocado, cucumber, pickled fennel, arugula, tempura crunch, lemon aioli.

Elle (right two on the 1 st and second rows and the rest of the rolls)
savory, sweet: organic tofu, arugula, roasted red pepper, jicama, green onion, black sesame seeds, garlic crunch, passionfruit miso sauce.

Pai Mei
smoky, creamy: salmon sashimi, asparagus, pea shoot leaves, pickled red onion, daikon, katsuo mirin crunch, toasted sesame mayo.

This is what I had.

Beatrix
umami, sweet: yellowfin tuna  and salmon sashimi, cucumber, pickled cabbage, green onion, tempura crunch, unagi sauce.

Since it was not sliced, it was a bit difficult to bite through the nori but the fish was quite fresh. The sauce was a bit on the sweet side. Despite the ethnic fusion/confusion involved they were pretty good. I can see why they are getting to be popular. At the same time I have to shake my head and wonder 'what is the world coming to? Is nothing sacred any more?'  Then I wonder if the sushi burrito will make its way to Japan soon and what kind of transformations it will undergo there. If it does I'll have to try it out.

Hanami 2016 Day 2 花見 2016 二日目

The cherry blossoms will be over very soon but we squeezed in one more day of hanami.

Still cold but nicely sunny with blue sky.

As I mentioned, previously we have three cherry trees. The newer tree, which we planted, is quite spectacular in its own right. When in full bloom the branches look like thick bottle brushes of pink cherry blossoms as shown in the picture above. The cherry blossoms on the older trees are more old-fashioned, light pink, delicately ethereal and very elegant as shown in the picture below. The two types of tree usually bloom at slightly different times. This year it was a treat that they bloomed together. 

At least, for this hanami I had a chance to go to our regular grocery store and bought a few items to make more hanami drinking snacks. I realized the garlic chives ニラ have emerged in our herb garden. So I made this dish. I did not follow any recipe but it is chicken tenderloin encased in omelet with garlic chives. I served this with green beans sautéed in butter (in the same frying pan I cooked the chicken). On the side, I put ketchup and Sriracha (small amount).  

I removed the small tendon/sinew from the top of the tenderloins, seasoned with salt and pepper. I chopped garlic chive I harvested from the herb garden.

I mixed in with a beaten egg.

I dipped the tenderloins in the egg mixture and started frying in butter. I added more egg mixture and I turned the tenderloins over so that the omelet encased the tenderloin. I repeated this process until all the egg mixture was used.

I also made my usual chawanmushi 茶碗蒸しwith crabmeat and garlic chives. I also put in some ginko nuts 銀杏 (from a can), chicken tenderloin thinly sliced against the grain of the meat.  We used our cherry blossom cut glass sake cups.

Before steaming the chawanmushi I added the smaller chunks of crabmeat to the egg mixture to be cooked into the custard. After 10 minutes of steaming, when the surface of the custard was cooked enough that the crabmeat would not sink into the custard I added the largest chunks of crabmeat.

While at the market I also got a salmon filet. As usual, I removed the belly portion and made it into a drinking snack. This time I simply seasoned with salt and pepper and pan fried it in butter. I made sure the skin was nicely crispy. I served it with asparagus which were cooked in the same pan.

So we managed to squeeze in one more day of hanami.

Hanami 2016 花見 2016

Again, Hanami 花見 season has come around. This year it was rather early and our backyard cherry trees were in full bloom on Easter weekend. The only problem for us was that we were out of town that weekend. We came back on Monday afternoon and found these spectacular cherry blossoms in our backyard (We were relieved that they were still in bloom). We have three different cherry trees; one that we planted and two that were already established on the property when we build the house. Usually the three trees reach peak bloom at different times but this year the two main trees bloomed at the same time making it more spectacular than usual. 

The sky was blue and sunny but unfortunately it was chilly and very windy.  We couldn't sit outside under the trees, so we had hanami looking from inside the house.

Since we just came back, we did not have anything special for Hanami so I made what I could from the cache in the freezer and also from food leftover from the trip. My wife bought these deviled eggs for a lunch on the road. They were not particularly flavorful and the worse for wear from the travel. 

I made the first snack from these sorry-looking deviled eggs. I just defrosted some cod roe or tarako たらこ. I removed the skin and mixed in sake and a small amount of concentrated noodle sauce from the bottle.

I just put the mixture on the deviled eggs (after cleaning them up a bit) and garnished it with finely chopped perilla leaves and chives. This was quite an improvement over the original and was a perfect first bite with cold sake.

I also defrosted some natto 納豆 and mozuku もずくin sweet black vinegar. I made cucumber cups and placed the tarako mixture remaining from the deviled egg course in the cups (left). I put a small dab of wasabi and a light splash of soy sauce on the top. For the natto I used the sauce in the package and added wasabi instead of mustard and mixed well using my natto mixing contraption, then I added an egg yolk (Davidson's pasteurized egg). For texture I added finely diced nagaimo 長芋 and garnished with nori strips (center). I served mozuki in sweet black vinegar as is (right).

The wasabi on the tarako was "real wasabi".

Natto with egg yolk is a good combination and the nagaimo dice gave a nice texture contrast.

Mozuku seaweed is famous in Okinawa and perfect with sake.

Using whatever I had, I also made a small simmered dish or nimono 煮物 from nagaimo. grilled tofu 焼き豆腐 and shirataki 白滝.

This may not have been the ideal for hanami; if truth be told I was hankering for some sashimi but at least these drinking snacks were adequate and how bad can it be if you can sip sake gazing at a panorama of cherry blossoms?

Spice-roasted cauliflower with barely salad スパイスローストカリフラワーと大麦のサラダ

We saw this recipe in WSJ. Since we make roasted cauliflower and barley salad, separately this combination really caught our attention. This is a recipe from Chef Eric Ziebold who used to be the executive chef of CityZen at Oriental Mandarine hotel, where we had some wonderful meals on several special occasions. This January he opened a new restaurant of his own called "Kinship". We have not yet dined there.  Of course, we had to make some modifications to the recipe basically to accommodate the ingredients we had on hand.

The cauliflower was baked with spices but it was not "spicy" hot.

Ingredients: Serves: 4

- Kosher salt

- 1 head cauliflower, broken into florets (#2 in picture below)).

- 1/4 Tbs. ground turmeric (#1)

- 1/4 Tbs. ground cumin (#1)

- 1/4 tsp fresh rosemary, finely chopped (original recipe calls for dried)

- 1/2 tsp dried oregano (#1)

- 1/4 cup (4 tbs) olive oil, divided into 2 portions

- 2 navel oranges, use the zest, orange segments and juice from the segments

- 1 cup uncooked barley

- 2 cups of chicken stock

- 1/4 cup walnuts toasted and roughly chopped (#6). (original recipe calls for Marcona almonds)

- 1/4 cup roughly chopped mint

- 1/4 cup green olives, pitted and roughly chopped (we had almond stuffed green olives from California, which we used instead).

- Juice of ½ lemon

1. Toast 1 cup of barley in the toaster oven until it is golden brown and fragrant. Rinse the toasted barley and add it to 2 cups of boiling chicken stock. Simmer for about 40 minutes. Remove from the heat and cool. If there is left over liquid drain the barley 

2. On a sheet pan  toss the cauliflower with the spices. Use 2 tbs of olive oil and a 1/2 tsp of salt to coat the florets. (The quantity of spices we used result in fairly mild flavor for the cauliflower. For a more intense flavor we could have probably doubled the spices. But it is generally to taste.) We put the tray in a 350 degree toaster oven and toasted for 25 to 30 minutes testing to so as not to overcook. (#3 and 4). 

3. Once both the barley and the cauliflower were completely cooled we put them in a bowl, then added the orange segments, orange zest, walnuts, mint and olives. We seasoned it with the remaining oil, lemon juice and salt. Then squeezed the juice from the reserved orange membranes over the salad (#5).

This is a wonderful salad. It has so many layers of texture and taste. The cauliflower had some crunch left. At first, when we tasted the cauliflower alone, it tasted too salty but after mixing it with the rest of the ingredients, it was just fine. Our store bought mint was not as strong as we would have liked. The navel oranges were very sweet and juicy which really added to the overall flavor. Over time even the cauliflower was infused with a sweet orange flavor. It is a rather filling salad but we like it very much.

Sake lees marinated grilled Monk fish アンコウの粕漬け

This is an experiment since I already had prepared sake lees marinade. Sake lees marinated cod was really good. We thought salmon would not be a good choice to marinate since it has a good flavor on its own which we love. I have never tried monk fish marinated in sake lees so I decided to try it. I served it witn green beans which was first blanched and then sautéed in butter. 

I grilled the marinated monk fish in our toaster oven.

Ingredients (for two small servings):

Monk fish, one filet, membrane removed and cut into 1 inch thick medallions

Kasudoko or sake lees marinade

Directions:

I salted the monk fish medallions and let them sit in the refrigerator for 1 hour uncovered. I then blotted the surface moisture with sheets of paper towel and marinated them in sake lees marinade (#1) for 3 days. I removed the fish and removed the excess marinade (#2). I washed it in cold running water and blotted dry (#3).  

Using our toaster oven under the grilling function, I cooked the fish for 5-6 minutes per side turning once until brown spots appeared and it was cooked through (#4).

This is not bad. Sake lees marinade added its flavor to the monk fish but the consistency of monk fish got really firm. I think a flaky white fish like cod is much better for this treatment.