Cauliflower-puree Blini カリフラワーピュレー ビィリニ

This is one of my wife’s variations on the theme of blini. Besides classic blini with buckwheat flour, she made quite a few variations.  She made this because the cauliflower puree I made needed to be finished. I occasionally make cauliflower puree which is a nice item to have since it can be used as is or as a part of other dishes. We even enjoy it as a cold soup for lunch after adding some milk or cream. In any case, my wife decided to try Cauliflower-puree blini. We were a bit skeptical about how this would turn out but it turned out great. It was very moist and soft inside. The pleasing hardy cauliflower flavor really came through. The crust was nice and crunchy. We enjoyed it toasted and slathered with butter as a part of breakfast.

Ingredients(X3): makes 14 blini
2 cups of cauliflower puree
6 tbs melted butter
3/4 cup sour cream
6 large eggs, beaten
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup + 2 tbs. cake flour
1 Tbs + 1 1/2 tsp. Baking powder
1 1/2 tsp salt
enough additional cream or buttermilk to make it the texture of pancake batter

Directions:Put the cauliflower puree in a bowl. Add the egg, the melted butter and sour cream, then add the flour, baking powder and salt and whisk until well blended. (You may need to add more cream so the batter is the consistency of pancake batter.)

Melt 1 tablespoon of butter. Use the butter to grease each cup of a cast iron platar, before adding the batter. Pour the batter into the cups until they are mostly full. Cook over moderately low heat, turning once, until set, about 5 minutes per side. Repeat with the remaining butter and batter.

Persimmon in Tofu Dressing 柿の白和え

“Shira-ae 白和え” meaning “white dressing”  refers to dishes in which the dressing consists mainly of tofu. The dishes usually use vegetables or fruit (persimmon being the most common fruit used). But protein such as chicken can also be added. There are variations of how to season the tofu but one ingredient consistently used is sesame; either sesame paste and/or coarsely ground sesame seeds. White miso or light colored soy sauce is often used. You can use either silken (Kinugoshi tofu 絹ごし豆腐 or firm Momen tofu 木綿豆腐). This time I used left-over medium firm tofu, ground re-roasted sesame seeds and hummus which I made a few days ago. For saltiness, I used “Shiro-dashi 白だし*” from the bottle. I used blanched green beans and persimmon (picture #1) which is rather classic.

* Shiro-dashi is a versatile light colored Japanese seasoning made of  light-colored soy sauce and Japanese  dashi-broth which is available in a bottle. 

I served this as a part of the appetizers (picture #2) one evening. The left is “Russian” marinated salmon 鮭のロシア漬け with “ikura いくら” salmon roe.
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Substituting sesame paste with hummus worked very well. This is a good “healthy” appetizer.

Grilled Beef Tongue 牛タンの焼肉

We like beef tongue which is not always easy to get. We like tongue prepared Pennsylvania Dutch style; boiled with aromatic vegitables which gives it a nice tender texture which is particularly good as  a sandwich meat. Another favorite is tongue stew also made from Pa Dutch style prepared tongue. In Japan, the most common way to prepare beef tongue, either thickly or thinly sliced, is grilling it or “Yaki-niku 焼肉”. The city of Sendai 仙台 in the Northern part of the Japanese mainland is famous for grilled tongue. We tried it some time ago while we were there visiting Japan but we did not like it. It was very tough and too chewy. We recently found that Weee offers two kind of frozen sliced beef tongue. Although details were a bit vague, one kind appears to be thin sliced and the other is a thicker slice judging from the reviews. We got the kind that was very thinly sliced (#2). As per Japanese fashion, we seasoned it with salt and pepper and briefly cooked it in a frying pan and served it with wedges of lemon. Since we had left-over croquettes (potato with ground pork and chicken), we heated them up in the toaster oven and served them as a side. The thinness of the beef tongue slices really helped but they were still a bit on the chewy side.  Nonetheless it had a lot of flavor. This is good but not our favorite way to have beef tongue.

The tongue came frozen and vacuum packed (#2). Skin was removed and the meat sliced very thin. Once thawed, it is relatively easy to separate into separate slices. I salted and peppered only on one side after the slices were in the frying pan.

Knowing that the thinly sliced version of beef tongue from Weee is still a bit chewy, we suspect the thicker slices would be even more so. 

Simmered “Satoimo” taro with squid 里芋とイカの煮物

This is a variation of “simmered squid and daikon イカ大根” which I posted sometime ago. This dish came together because we had Japanese taro or satoimo 里芋 from Suzuki farm and some frozen squid from Vital Choice that needed to be used. The squid was in good condition. The bodies were cleaned and skinned. I made two dishes to use up the squid. One was squid and celery sautéed in garlic butter and the other was this dish. I used blanched Japanese “kabu” turnip greens (also from Suzuki Farm) as a garnish. It really added to this dish with its color, texture and distinctive flavor. I cooked the squid very quickly (for less than one minute. It will cook a bit more when it is combined with the satoimo in the simmering liquid). Then using the same simmering liquid, I cooked the satoimo. When it was done I combined it with the cooked squid. This is a good combination and we liked the texture of the satoimo. The squid was not chewy at all (thanks to short cooking).

Ingredients: (2 small servings)
170 gm frozen squid, thawed, legs separated and the bodies cut into rings
6 small Japanese taro “satoimo”, peeled, and soaked in water
Blanched daikon or kabu green for garnish (optional. any greenery will do such as broccoli or green beans)

Simmering liquid
1 cup Japanese broth (kelp and bonito flakes)
2 tbs or more (to taste) x4 concentrated Japanese noodle sauce

Directions:
Bring the simmering liquid to a simmer, add the squid and cook until color of the squid turns opaque and firms up (less than 1 minute), take it out and set aside. In the same simmering liquid add the satoimo and simmer for 15-30 minutes or until the satoimo is done (when it is tender when tested with a skewer).
Add back the cooked squid and warm them up for 20-30 seconds and serve.

This is a classic Japanese comfort dish. The squid adds a nice umami to the broth which is absorbed by the satoimo.  Japanese “kabu” turnip green also adds color as well as its unique flavor.

Japanese Sweet potato Blini さつまいもビィリニ

My wife has been making all kinds of blini variations. This time was Japanese sweet potato blini.

Ingredients(X3): makes 14 blini
2 cups of mashed sweet potatoes
6 tbs melted butter
3/4 cup sour cream
6 large eggs, beaten
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup + 2 tbs. cake flour
1 Tbs + 1 1/2 tsp. Baking powder
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbs. maple syrup (add more for a sweeter blini) 
enough additional cream or buttermilk to make it the texture of pancake batter

Directions:
Run the mashed potatoes through a ricer to work out any lumps. Put the riced potatoes in a bowl. Add the egg, the melted butter and sour cream, then add the flour, baking powder and salt and whisk until well blended. (You may need to add more cream so the batter is the consistency of pancake batter.)

In a cast iron platar, melt 1 tablespoon of butter. Use the melted butter to grease each of the platar cups before adding the batter. Pour the batter into the cups until they are mostly full. Cook over moderately low heat, turning once, until set, about 5 minutes per side. Repeat with the remaining butter and batter.

These had a very pleasing texture. The sweet potato flavor however didn’t really come through. Nonetheless it was good toasted for breakfast. Bottom line: any starch; potatoes, corn, whatever can be used to make a mighty fine blini.