Happy New Year 2020 明けましておめでとうございます

Happy New Year 2020 which is also the end and beginning of a decade. 2019 was not a year we would like to repeat. Hope 2020 is a bit less "eventful". We started New Year 2020 as we would any other New Year. I put up the new "Kagami-mochi" 鏡餅 decoration in our Japanese "tea" room alcove or "Tokonoma" 床間 and displayed the zodiac mouse figurines子の年 from our collection of zodiac figures.

The largest mouse appears to be dressed in ”Kannushi" 神主 shinto priest attire. I am not sure what the smaller one is up to. It seems to be carrying a pouch and has on a backpack. (On closer inspection, this guy appears to be carrying a "Kome-dawara" 米俵; a traditional old fashioned woven-straw sac containing rice, no doubt a symbol of prosperity). It's cute.

We also displayed a small carved wooden mouse figure shown below which was not as anthropomorphized as the other two--he just looks cutely "mouse-ish".

Since we cannot start the day, even the first day of the year, without coffee, we gave up having a new year's "ozoni soup" お雑煮 for breakfast, instead, we had "ozoni" soup as a lunch as shown below. Not shown below, it was accompanied with a symbolic small cup of sake.

Nothing is  different from any other year but this year, I got fresh "mitsuba" 三つ葉. As usual, our mochi 餅 is wrapped in "abura-age" 油揚げ deep fried tofu pouch for easier handing/eating (especially for my wife).

I tried not to serve too much of food to make sure we can "adequately" hit the Sushitaro osechi box 寿司太郎のおせち重箱 and other goodies in the evening. All of the below are what I made. Two squares are "matsukaze yaki" 松風焼き (miso and pine nuts) and its variation (fig and bleu-cheese). I also served "kobu-maki" 昆布巻 kelp roll which was made from kelp and kanpyo 干瓢 "dried gourd peel") that were left over from when I made salmon kelp rolls 鮭昆布巻. I also made "datemaki" 伊達巻.

To help digestion (my father used to say "daikon" helps digestion), I also served  daikon namasu 大根なます topped with boiled octopus leg and ikura salmon "roe". This roe came from an Alaskan company. which we used for the first time. The ikura is much smaller than the ikura we usually get--it actually looks a bit more like trout roe but tasted the same as salmon roe.

So, this was how we started 2020 and more to come in the evening.

Grilled feta, olive and grapes

My wife found this recipe in the food section of the Washington Post. It's a rather simple dish but we really like it.  It makes a good appetizer and goes well with wine. We served it with mini-baguette.

The original recipe suggested cooking this in a cast iron skillet. We thought that might be too big for the quantity we wanted to make so we cooked this is a small anodized cast aluminum pan (this was a Japanese style pot (mini version) with a wooded lid for an individual "nabe" dish) which worked perfectly.

The cubes of feta cheese get brown and crispy on the outside but soft inside. My wife thought it is also good just to enjoy without bread. The combination of spices (fennel seeds, red pepper flakes and ground black pepper), salty olives and sweet grapes all worked well.

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, plus more as needed
1/2 cup (2 3/4 ounces) seedless red grapes, (we cut the amount in half).
1/3 cup (1 1/2 ounces) pitted and halved Kalamata olives. (We used a combination of the different olives we had on hand. We cut some of the large ones in half.)
1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds, crushed
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
Freshly ground black pepper
8 to 10 ounces feta cheese (in a block)
Good, crusty bread slices, for serving

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees with the rack in the middle (we used our toaster oven on convection mode on the bottom rack). Oil a small, oven-proof casserole dish or cast-iron pan. Add the grapes, olives, 1 tablespoon olive oil, fennel seeds, red pepper flakes and a few grinds of black pepper, and stir to combine.
Break the block of feta up into irregular pieces, then nestle them among the grapes and olives. Drizzle with more olive oil, then bake, 20 to 25 minutes, until the grapes are softened and the feta is browned in spots.

This is a really good dish. We had only a small portion the night we made it and reheated it later in the microwave which worked well. My wife kept reminding me as I made the dish, "a little bit of fennel goes a long way". Don't over do it' the fennel actually made the dish. The combination of fennel, olives and grapes were made for each other and the total went remarkably well with red wine. Definitely this will join to our line up of "regular" dishes.

Parsnip carrot mash

This is my wife's innovation. She really likes parsnips and came up with this combination one evening. Since we were roasting pork loin as we do frequently, we also cooked the carrots and parsnips wrapped in aluminum foil in the Weber grill. The black item on the plate is blackened Brussel's sprouts which may not look appetizing but this is the best way to enjoy Brussels's sprouts--they taste sweet almost like candy. Greenbeans and mashed carrots and parsnips complete the sides.

This combination has very good flavor (mostly coming from the parsnips) and a beautiful color (coming from the carrots).

We peeled the parsnips and carrots, cut the small tips off the parsnips and cut the carrots in half because they were too long for the piece of foil. We coated everything with olive oil and wrapped in aluminum  foil (#1 and #2). We placed them in the Weber grill with the pork (#4). The pork was hot smoked but the vegetables wrapped in aluminum foil did not get any smoky flavor. My wife mashed the cooked veggies, added butter and soy sauce. I helped by further smoothing the mixture with my immersion blender (#3).

This mash is really great. It is certainly much more interesting than mashed potato. This will be our regular side for roasted meats.

Egg and smoked salmon puff pastry loaf 卵とスモークサーモンパフぺィストリー包み

This is a recipe my wife's sister sent us. It is one of those all-inclusive breakfast type dishes and we went for it. It is essentially a cream cheese omelet/scrambled egg with chives and dill and  smoked salmon encased in puff pastry and baked. How could this be bad (at least in terms of taste rather than health).

We had this as a light lunch but it also goes well as a hor d'oeuvres. The only problem was that the bottom crust did not quite puff up. Based on past experience with puff pastry we were afraid this would happen so we took some extra measures such as putting it on parchment paper and cooking it on a metal wire grate that elevated it above the baking sheet so the bottom could get more heat (see #5, composite picture below). The cut section shows nice layers of salmon and egg but, as can be seen, the bottom is not flaky. To remidy this my wife turned it upside down and toasted it in the toaster oven on high heat for several minutes. That did the trick the bottom puffed up nicely.

In making this we divided our labour. I made the eggs and my wife prepared the rest of the ingredients and assembled it.

Ingredients: (our modification).
1 frozen puff pastry sheet, thawed
4 eggs*
1/4 cup cream (original recipe calls for milk)
1/8 tsp salt
1 tsp butter
2 oz cream cheese (I used cream cheese with chives)
1/2 tsp chives, chopped (Original recipe calls for green onion)
2 tsp fresh dill, chopped
Smoked salmon, enough to cover center 1/3 of the puff pastry
1/2 cup Double Gloucester cheese (original recipe calls for Mozzarella, we did not have it).

*The original recipe called for 8 eggs. Although we used one sheet of puff pastry as indicated in the original recipe, we thought "8" eggs would be too much and reduced it to 4 eggs reducing the other ingredients accordingly. As you can see below 4 eggs are more than enough for one sheet of pastry (#3 and #4).

Directions:
The recipe said to preheat oven to 350F (we think 400F, is more appropriate. It is also the temperature called for in the instructions on the puff pastry box. At 350F the pastry was a bit too pale (#5 and 6) and the bottom did not cook completely).

Beat the eggs, add chives and dill, cream, and salt. Add small pieces of the cream cheese. In the non-stick frying pan, melt butter and add the egg mixture. Make loose scrambled egg/omelet.

Roll out the sheet of thawed puff pastry to 12 x15inches. On the center 1/3 place the smoked salmon leaving 1/2 inch on both ends, layer the eggs (#1) and the cheese (#2). Fold both sides (#3 and 4), brush with water  (or as the original recipe suggests egg water) to seal the ends. Bake 25 minutes (#5 and 6).

Although we did not taste much of dill or chives, this is a very nice breakfast or snack with wine. After my wife re-toasted the bottom in the toaster oven, the eggs were encased in nicely puffed pastry. Initially the smoked salmon was quite assertive but still quite good.  The whole dish got even better with time as the flavors melded together. It reheated nicely in the toaster oven. We will freeze some and see how we can reheat it. We'll have to work out a way to make sure the bottom also gets cooked because we will be making this again.

Japanese "Yakiyaki-san" smoke-less earthenware grill やきやきさん

In one of the Milk Street magazines, I saw an article about this Japanese smoke-less (or at least smoke reduced) grill which is made from the same type of "Iga" earthenware 伊賀焼 as "Kamado san" かまどさん rice cooker which we have and really like. We also found YouTube footage introducing this by chef Ming Tsai.  What makes this grill special is the way it is constructed; the lower "bowl" has a large groove around the periphery which is filled with water to form a kind-of moat. So during the grilling the oil runs down the grooves on the top plate into the water filled moat rather than onto hot metal or ceramic as it would on a traditional grill. As a result the run-off oil or grease doesn't get heated and start smoking. In addition, according to the manufacturer, the temperature of the earthenware disk does not go above 350C (on medium flame). This is unique to this product since other grills made of either metal or earthenware easily go over 350C and start smoking. Further they claim that the combination of the earthenware disk and its black glaze results in far-infrared heat which gives a "charcoal-fire" like effect or taste.

Being somewhat  of a "gadget" lover, the YouTube discussion convinced me I had to try this and I ordered one. After its arrival, it sat for some time but finally we had a chance to use it.  We were not sure how "smoke-less" this was so we tried it on the stove under the exhaust fan. I followed the instructions. First, I filled the moat to 80% with water and preheated it for 5 minutes on high flame and then turned the flame down to medium. I brushed the grill surface with olive oil and started cooking.

The picture below shows the end products. We grilled filet mignon, shiitake mushrooms, onions, small red potatoes and zucchini. (My wife added a pat of butter to the onion and zucchini when I wasn't looking). Since the meat was filet mignon and very tender I didn't want to overcook it so I did not leave it on the grill for long as a result, there were no char marks.

The meat was one medium sized filet mignon cut into 1/4 inch slices and seasoned with salt and pepper. I put a bit of olive oil on the gill sides of the Shiitake mushrooms and seasoned with salt. I sliced the the onion, and zucchini into1/8 inch thick pieces. I secured the sections of the onions with toothpicks and coated the vegetables with olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper.

I first microwaved the small red potatoes in a silicon container until they were cooked then I cut them in half and seasoned them with salt and pepper.

I started cooking with the vegetables since I figured they would take much longer than the meat to cook. At medium flame, char marks did not develop so I cranked up the heat to high flame and finally the food started cooking with char marks but still there was no discernible smoke .

The picture below shows the nice crust that started forming on the potatoes and onions. When the veggies were cooked I added the meat. The meat took only few a minutes to cook to medium rare but with this short cooking no char developed. The juices from the meat added to the flavor of the veggies.

Certainly this is a good way to grill without decernable smoke. It is possible to use this grill on the table with a portable gas burner but we are not sure if the heat would be high enough. Besides, we just got rid of our aged portable cassette because we were worried about how safe it was given how ancient it was.

The food tasted really good. Although we did not use any sauce, there was enough seasonings on the food. Both the veggies and meat were perfectly cooked. Washing the grill afterward was not too difficult but we have to make sure it is totally dry before using it again.