Tomato and Egg Stir-fry on Rice トマトと卵炒め丼

 This is a variation of tomato and egg stirfly I posted previously. I learned that this is based on a Chinese dish called “番茄炒蛋” and there appears to be many variations. The main difference between this version and the recipe I posted previously, is the addition of caramelized catsup which adds a slightly sweet dimension. I made this one day for a lunch from my memory since we had skinned Campari tomatoes which needed to be used fairly soon. I made it as a type of “donburi”. Since I just made “simmered” pork or “nibuta” 煮豚 using InstantPot, I included a slice and also broccoli rabe (rapini) which I blanched earlier.

I may have overcooked the tomato a bit, but it was juicy and flavorful and very nice over the rice.

Ingredients:
4 skinned Campari tomatoes, cut into quarter pieces
2 eggs
Vegetable oil and dark sesame oil for stir frying
Salt and peper to tast
1tbs Ketchup
A dash or more of Sriracha sauce (to taste, optional)

Directions:
Add the tomatoes, ketchup and Suriracha into a small bowl and coat the tomato pieces.
Add the vegetable oil and a splash of sesame oil into a frying pan on midum high flame. Quickly stir fry and season with salt and pepper.
Add beaten eggs and let it sit until the bottom is set.
Gradually mix until the eggs are cooked (for 1-2 minutes).

Heat up the slices of simmered pork and chopped up blanched rapini in a separate frying pan with a small amount of oil. Season the rapini with salt and pepper (optional).

Pour over the bowl of rice and place the pork and rapini on top.

In general, we like “donburi” dishes. This one is no exception. The caramelized Catsup adds a nice complex slightly sweet dimension. Also the slow heat from the Sriracha is nice and enough juice came out of the tomatoes to make a nice sauce for the rice.

Small Rice Bowl using the last of Osechi お節残り物丼

We had a lunch yesterday of mochi rice cake and cheese 焼きチーズ餅 and some side dishes. Today is the end of the first week of the new year called “Matusno-uchi” 松の内, I made a small “donburi” rice bowl topped with three of the last items from Sushi taro osechi box. (It would appear that I make a similar dish almost every new year). This time, I added a scrambled  egg with blanched broccoli florets. This was just a perfect size dish for us.

The small fish shown at 12 O’Clock is “Jako-no-arima-ni” 雑魚の有馬煮.  At 9 O’Clock is “soboro” そぼろ which I made using  the meat removed from a grilled small “tai” snapper 小鯛の姿焼き included in the osechi box and cooked in “mirin” sweet Japanese cooking wine and soy sauce until almost dry. I also garnished with ““ikura-no-shouyu-zuke いくらの醤油漬けor marinated “ikura” salmon roe.

With a side of  salted cucumber and nappa cabbage  胡瓜と白菜の浅漬け, this was a perfect lunch.

New Year’s day Evening 元旦の夕べ

So finally, we busted into the osechi box for the New Year’s day evening feast. Like we did before, I decided to use “Tsugaru-muri” 津軽塗り lacquerware two-tier lunch box (one tier for each of us) to serve the goodies. As a side, I also served the diakon-namasu 大根なます I made topped with slices of boiled Spanish octopus leg we got from D’Artagnan  and Ikura salmon roe.

I picked up most of the key items here including our favorites like “kazunoko” herring roe marinated in miso かずのこの味噌漬け, “karasumi” 唐墨 botargo and “ankimo tofu” あん肝豆腐 monkfish liver terrine. I lightly toasted karasumi, duck breast and “sawara saikyo-yaki” 鰆の西京焼き before serving.

These small items were such a treat. We enjoyed every bite along with a sip of our house sake “Tengumai daiginjo” 天狗舞大吟醸.

Happy New Year 2023 新年おめでとう御座います2023

It is morning of the first day of 2023. The past year was marked by many events; not the least of which is the still lingering COVID-19. In any case, here is the “Kagami-mochi” 鏡餅 New Year’s decoration. It is  accompanied by various rabbit figurines because this is the year of the rabbit according to the Chinese zodiac. We usually place the new year’s decoration in the tokonoma 床間 alcove  of  our “tearoom” in the basement but this year, we decided to place it in the room where we spend most of our time to maximize our enjoyment of the collection.

As usual, the highlight of our new year is the Sushi taro osechi box 寿司太郎お節箱. We drove down to Dupont circle and picked up the Osechi box and hand-cut soba noodles “toshikoshi soba” 年越しそば (which we usually enjoy the 2nd day of the new year). For many years, we traditionally have our regular breakfast of Cafe Latte with yogurt and breads and have the New Year’s “Ozouni” お雑煮 soup for lunch. I also served a few items I made. As always, we wheeled out the real Japanese laquer ware bowls my mother gave us a long time ago.

As usual, we encased the mochi in a fried tofu pouch or “abura-age” 油揚げ (in an effort to make the eating experience a bit more manageable). It is at the bottom of the bowl so you can’t see it in the picture. I cut the carrot into a flower-shape and the daikon into a ginko leaf-shape. I also added burdock root ごぼう (the white rectangular object in the picture), shiitake mushroom, shrimp, flower-shape gluten cakes or “fu” 麩, snow pea, scallion and yuzu zest (frozen). I made the broth from dashi packs, a bit of mirin and x4 Japanese noodle sauce.

The accompanying dishes (from left to right) are all listed in “Norio’s New year dishes”. They are: chicken squares with gorgonzola cheese and dried fig, salmon kelp roll 鮭の昆布巻き, datemaki omelet 伊達巻, and salmon Russian marinade. (This year I made some modifications to the marinade by adding Dijon mustard and dill). Of course it wouldn’t be an adequate celebration of the first day of the New Year without at least a token glass of sake. This year it was our house favorite Tengumai Daiginjo 天狗舞大吟醸. The soup and these items were pretty good if I do say so myself.

Although we did not tap into the osechi box, here is a preview of what to expect when we eagerly dive in this evening. The picture below shows the first tier. Although many goodies are hidden below the items we can see, we can spot our favorites like “karasumi” 唐墨,  “mushi uni” 蒸し雲丹 and “Kazunoko” 数の子.

The second tier also has our favorites such as “Ankimo tofu”, “Ikura” and duck breast.

We are repeating ourselves but it is so wonderful that we are able to get this incredible osechi from Sushi Taro. We will be enjoying these delicacies over the next few days.

Fruitcake フルーツケーキ

My wife likes to have special baked goods for the Xmas season. After several attempts, we gave up on making panettone and now buy it. For stollen bread, she made  it a few times but now we also buy it. This year we got two different brands of panettone from Amazon and a large stollen from Williams-Sonoma.  We also used to buy fruitcake (Claxton Fruit Cake) in the past. We were not planning on including fruitcake in this year’s line-up but I came across a recipe for fruitcake on the WashingtonPost website. Supposedly this one goes well with cheese. So I mentioned it to my wife and she went into action. (Note from Wifey: We had bought various candied fruit from Harry and David. While munching on them as a snack I thought, ‘These would be perfect for a fruitcake. So when I was presented with the fruitcake recipe, it was ‘all-systems-go”.) As usual, she made some modifications due to availability nuts and dried fruit. I helped her by cutting up the dried fruit. It was remarkably good and indeed went well with cheese (and a glass of red wine). 

Ingredients (shown in the picture below)
2 cups (180 grams) walnuts halves
1 cup (140 grams) dried mission figs, chopped into ½-inch pieces
1 cup (140 grams) dried fruit medley from Harry and David cut into 1/2 inch pieces (Original recipe called for dried dates.)
1 cup (140 grams) combination candied pineapple and mangos from Harry and David cut into 1/2 inch pieces. (Original recipe called for dried cherries)
½ cup (170 grams) honey, (I used buckwheat honey which is very strong in flavor and dark in color)
½ cup (118 grams) brandy
Zest and juice of 1 lemon
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon grated nutmeg
¼ teaspoon ground mace (may substitute with ground allspice)
1 cup (220 grams) packed light or dark brown sugar
1 cup (125 grams) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon fine salt
1 stick (4 ounces/113 grams) unsalted butter
2 large eggs.

Directions:

Toast the walnut then roughly chop and place in a small bowl. In a medium bowl, toss together the figs, dates and dried fruit until combined. Whisk together the honey, brandy, lemon juice and lemon zest until combined, and set aside. In a small bowl, whisk together the cinnamon, nutmeg and mace. In a medium bowl, thoroughly whisk together the sugar, flour, baking powder and salt to combine then set aside.

Melt the butter in a sauce pan. Heat slowly to let the water in the butter boil off without exploding and then cook until the solids turn brown, about 5 minutes. Turn off the heat and stir in the spices (this will help bloom the flavor of the spices and suffuse them into the fruitcake). Carefully, add the honey mixture — the contents of the pot may bubble up — and stir to combine. Add the dried figs and stir to coat. Turn off the heat and let the mixture cool.

Once the mixture has cooled, stir in the eggs, one at a time, and mix thoroughly to incorporate. Stir in the dry ingredients until no trace of flour remains, then fold in the remaining dried fruit and walnuts. Grease a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan then line it with a piece of parchment paper long enough to have a generous overhang on each of the long sides. (Word of advice; be sure the parchment paper covers the entire bottom of the loaf pan because the cake really sticks to any exposed surface.) Grease the parchment as well. Scrape the batter into the prepared loaf pan and smooth out the top with an offset spatula or spoon, if needed. (Next picture below) Bake for 1 hour 35 minutes in a 300 degree oven or until the fruitcake has just begun to pull away from the edges of the pan. Transfer the fruitcake to a wire rack and let cool in the pan for about 20 minutes. Use the parchment sling to lift the fruitcake from the pan, and let cool completely before serving. (Second picture below.)

This is a really surprisingly great fruit cake. Probably the best we ever tasted. (Yes I know the baseline for fruit cake is very low, but this one stands up to any baseline for pastry.) It is very moist. The brandy, browned butter and honey really work well together to create a very complex pleasing taste. The dried fruit is slightly firm and adds another taste dimension. It also goes extremely well with a slice of cheddar cheese. The gentle sweetness of the fruit cake juxtaposed to the rich saltiness is the cheese is very nice. Next time we’ll make the fruitcake in several smaller loaf pans. The smaller pieces are just the right size for a fruitcake cheese appetizer and that combination goes very well with red wine.