Five appetizers on a five compartment plate 新しいお皿とお通し５種

Some izakayas are known for giving multiple "otoshi" お通し appetizers to guests at the start of a meal.  For example we had six ostoshi at "Suiko" 酔香 and "Shuhai" 酒杯. We really love these types of dishes and often make similar ones at home. But sometimes multiple small bowls and dishes are a bit of work to arrange and clean. When I was browsing the "Korin" website recently, I found a long rectangular dish with five small square indentations and thought it would be a perfect way to circumvent the multiple-small-dish-cleanup issue. So, this is my first attempt at serving 5 small appetizers on this new plate. None of appetizers; only the dishes are new.

Shown below from left to right; #1 miso marinated cream cheese クリームチーズの味噌ずけ, and #2 "Jako" hatchling fish arima-ni ジャコの有馬煮. #1 was almost 10 days old and the flavor really got better over time as the cheese absorbed the salty nuttiness of the miso. I served this on thinly sliced mini-cucumber. #2 is the last of the leftovers from the Sushitaro osechi box (I heated it up in sake and soy sauce to make it last). This time since I was heating up other items in the toaster oven, I decide to include this. The result was a bit surprising and very good. The surface of the little fish got really crispy (nearly burnt) and they became nice crunchy bits.

Shown below #3 is chicken patty with dried fig and gorgonzola cheese いちじくとブルーチーズの松風焼きwhich was topped with figgy cranberry sauceいちじくクランベリーソース. #4 is braised spicy tofu ピリ辛豆腐 with blanched sugar snap.

Below, #5 is blanched broccoli dressed in sesame dressing ブロッコリーの胡麻よごし. It was an attempt to add vegetables for a "nutritionally balanced" appetizer.

Since I cook multiple dishes over the weekend, keeping them in the fridge then heating them up in the toaster over when we are ready to eat I could easily have added a few more items. Maybe, I should aim for the type of "Hassun*" 八寸 appetizers we got at "Kappa" 小料理屋河童  in  San Francisco which had 15 small appetizer dishes on one square plate.

* "Su-n" is a traditional  Japanese measurement (one "su-n" 一寸 is about 3cm, so eight "su-n" or "Hassun" is about 24cm). The idea here is to serve several small seasonal dishes on a "hassun" or "eight su-n" square cedar tray (or plate) which is usually the second course of a traditional "Kaiseki" 会席 or 懐石 course dinner.

Puff pastry cheese bites パフペイストリーリコッタチーズ

My wife really likes small cheesy appetizers in all various forms. This is based on a recipe she saw on line called "Simple Leek and Ricotta Tarts". She made substantial changes to the recipe.

The end  result was quite different in appearance (and maybe in taste).

Ingredients:
500 grams (1 pound) fresh ricotta cheese

1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

1 egg
one sheet ready-prepared puff pastry
1 shallot, trimmed and finely sliced
2 tablespoons butter, melted
2 dried thyme leaves
 to taste
Salt and cracked black pepper

Direction:
Preheat the oven to 180°C (355°F).
Place the ricotta, parmesan, thyme and eggs in a bowl and whisk until smooth.
Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface until 3 mm (1/8 inch) thick.
Cut into bite sized squares and place on baking trays lined with non-stick baking paper. Using a small scoop put the ricotta mixture over the pastry squares leaving a border (#1).
According to the recipe place the shallots on top of the ricotta mixture (#2), (next time we will dice the shallots and mix them into the ricotta mixture).  Brush with the butter especially on the exposed pastry edges. Sprinkle with salt, and pepper and bake for 25–30 minutes or until golden (#3 & #4).

These weren't bad but they were a little bland. Next time we will pump up the flavors by adding the shallots directly to the ricotta mixture, using a bit more thyme and salt. The ricotta mixture expanded to cover the pastry making a nice cheesy crust. They reheated well in the toaster oven. We toasted them crust side up on parchment paper. That way the crust becomes crunchy again and the parchment paper keeps the cheese from sticking to the pan. These are nice little cheesy bites to go with wine.

Green tea cake with "Kuromame" black beans 黒豆入り抹茶ケーキ

I usually do not make deserts but this was an exception. I saw the recipe (in Japanese) in one of the food blogs I follow. The blogger is a very talented and her cooking covers a wide range of international and Japanese cuisines.  Since I had leftover "Kuromame" 黒豆 black beans from the Osechi box and green tea powder or "macha" 抹茶, I decided to make this cake. Sushitaro osechi included a similar cake one year.  Since this is not my usual area of cooking my wife advised me on several of the techniques (such as creaming sugar and butter) and even though I had a slight "hiccup" in the butter creaming department, the cake came out extremely well. We had this as an afternoon snack with "sencha" 煎茶　green tea (from Hibiki-an 響庵).

The cake is moist with a nice green tea smell and flavor. Although I did not brush the cake with brandy as suggested in the original recipe, the brandy flavor came from the black beans since they were soaked in brandy before baking. This is an excellent cake.

The below are English translation of  the original recipe in Japanese.

Ingredients: (for one loaf of 19cm x 9cm)
100g unsalted butter, room temperature
65g  sugar
50g AP flour
20g potato starch (Katakuri-ko)
40g almond flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1tbs green tea powder (macha)
2 eggs, lightly beaten
3tbs plain yogurt
1tsp vanilla essence
Japanese "Kuromame" black beans in a syrup, arbitrary amount, drained and soaked in 2 tbs brandy.

(use 1 standard size loaf pan or 2 small red silicone loaf pans) 

Ingredients: X2 (for 2 loaves of 19cm x 9cm)
200 g unsalted butter, room temperature
130 g  sugar
100 g AP flour
40g potato starch (Katakuri-ko)
80g almond flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbs green tea powder (macha)
4 eggs, lightly beaten
6 tbs plain yogurt
2 tsp vanilla essence
Japanese "Kuromame" black beans in a syrup, arbitrary amount, drained and soaked in 4 tbs brandy.

(use 2 standard size loaf pans or 4 small red silicone loaf pans.)

Directions:
1. I mixed all dry ingredients (including the sugar) together and sifted to remove any crumbs.
(I made the mistake of not creaming the butter with the sugar. My wife (always helpful) pointed out that this process is very common in cake making or cookie baking. So in an attempt to recover from my mistake, I punted).
2. I added the butter and eggs to the plastic mixing container for the immersion blender. Using low speed, I mixed the butter and eggs. I added all the remaining wet ingredients and further mixed (This worked. All wet ingredients were nicely mixed).
3. I added the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mixed until no dry ingredients were visible (#1).
4. Since we did not have a loaf pan of the size specified in the original recipe, we used a disposable aluminum baking pan, well-buttered with the bottom lined with parchment paper  (in retrospect, we could have used a smaller pan which we did have). I placed half of the batter in the loaf pan and smoothed the surface (#2).
5. I drained the black beans soaked in brandy and mixed into the remaining batter (#3).
6. I layered the second batter on top of the first layer and smoothed the surface (#4). (This process results in the black beans being evenly distributed in the cake).
7. I baked the loaf in a preheated 350F oven for 40-45 minutes or until a bamboo skew inserted in the center came out clean.
8. After the loaf cooled down, I removed it from the pan (#5).
9. The black beans appear evenly distributed (sort of).

When the cake came out of the oven, the smell of green tea was really good. For the very first cake I ever made this is an unqualified success (thanks in part to my wife's guidance of course). We are thinking that instead of kuromame, we can make this cake without it or with nuts. We really enjoyed this cake. It is truly special.

Seasoned fish "soboro" donburi 鯛のそぼろ丼

We had this as a lunch one weekend. This is a mini-"donduri" rice bowl ミニ丼 made with the last of the leftovers from the Sushi Taro osechi box. I made a similar dish before. The osechi box included a small "tai" red fish 小鯛姿焼き which is basically a symbolic dish for the new year. The fish does not have much of the meat and taste rather mild. So rather than just eat it, I removed the meat and made "soboro" そぼろ. I also used "jako" arima-ni" ジャコの有馬煮 in this donburi. I served this with a clear soup made of fish meat ball  (from mackerel) and tofu さばのつみれ汁.

To add colors and taste, I also added scrambled egg and green beans. The green beans were blanched, cut into small pieces and sautéed in butter and seasoned with salt and pepper. The scrambled egg was seasoned with sugar and salt.

The "tai" soboro is visible on the left and the Jako arima-ni on the right.

The picture below shows the mackerel fishball soup. I added snow peas, shiitake mushroom, chopped scallion and Yuzu skin.

Fish soboro 魚のそぼろ
"Soboro" is a type of Japanese dish in which finely minced meat (chicken, pork or beef) or fish is braised with seasoning (soy sauce and mirin or sake) until almost dry. The soboro is usually used as a condiment for rice or used to make donburi by putting it on top of the rice.

I just removed the meat from the small red fish and tore the meat into small pieces. I braised it with soy sauce and mirin (about 2:1ratio) until also mostly dry. I tasted it towards the end of cooking and added more soy sauce. The seasoning is totally arbitrary but, as a condiment for rice, you may want rather strong soy sauce/salty flavor. To balance with "Jako" arima-ni, I also added sansho powder 山椒 at the end.

I microwaved frozen rice (it was frozen in a special Japanese container for rice. I just opened the steam hole and microwaved it). I placed the rice in the bowl, arranged fish soboro, Jako arima-ni, scrambled egg and green beans on top.

This was quite satisfying lunch and went well with the soup.

Green Goddess dip and improved carrot miso dip 緑の女神ディップ

We made these three dips/spreads for a dinner we had with friends. We previously posted the carrot cashew spread (left) and Greek cheese with olive oil (center) recipes but the green dip (right) is new. All of these dips are great and the carrot cashew spread was a great improvement over the previous version. These are perfect with crackers and wine. We also used the green dip on a sandwich instead of mayonnaise and it was really good.

This is an improved carrot miso spread. The last time we made this, we did not have raw cashews so we used roasted cashews. This time we used raw cashews which were also cooked in chicken broth before being pureed. This resulted in a much smoother consistency. Both the miso and the natural sweetness of the carrot come through. I also roasted the sesame seeds before grinding them which really added a fresh nutty sesame taste. I am not sure if using raw cashew nuts or cooking them or both made the difference but this version is much creamier in texture.

This Greek yogurt olive oil dip is our old stand-by and favorite. Two key points to making this dip are to straining plain yogurt (not low-fat) to make your own Greek yogurt and using high quality fruity and spicy olive oil like our favorite Spanish olive oil. This time, I garnished it with Japanese Yuzu peels (frozen) which added nice fresh citrus taste.

This is a new dip. The recipe came from the Washington Post. It is called "Cashew Green Goddess Dip". The green color makes it look like an avocado dip but there is no avocado. The green color comes mostly from parsley and tarragon. Another interesting ingredient is canned anchovies.

Ingredients:
1 cup raw cashews*
1⁄2 cup water (we used chicken broth*)
1⁄2 cup chopped parsley
1⁄4 cup lemon juice
1⁄4 cup chopped fresh tarragon
2 tablespoons chopped chives
3 filets of canned anchovies, drained
1 teaspoon honey
1 clove garlic
1⁄2 teaspoon salt

*The instructs state that if you are using a high-speed blender such as Vitamix, you just puree the ingredients. (We have a good regular blender), otherwise you soak the cashews in water overnight before pureeing. We cooked the raw cashews in chicken broth for 5 minutes instead. This worked well. The broth, in which the cashews were cooked, was also used in leu of the water.

Directions:
Combine the raw cashews*, water (or chicken broth), parsley, lemon juice, tarragon, chives, anchovies, honey, garlic and salt in a blender. Puree until smooth. Chill before serving.

This is a very good and unique dip. We can really taste the tarragon and honey. The garlic and anchovies are there in the background and add "je ne sais quoi" but if we are not told, it is not easy to detect. The original recipe called for celery sticks as the dip "delivery system" but we just enjoyed it on crackers. All these three dips are excellent and different from each other and made an excellent start for the evening.