Baby artichokes sauté with Pancetta and olives ベィビィアーティチョークのパンチェッタとオリーブの炒めもの

We posted a baby artichokes dish before. Since it is (was) the season for baby artichokes, we got another dozen. As I understand it, baby artichokes come from exactly the same plant as regular artichokes but they are the smaller buds which grow on the lower branches. This time, I did the cleaning and cooking of the artichokes rather than my wife. I decided to make sautéed artichokes with pancceta and olives mostly because we had pancceta.

Preparing the baby artichokes: I used my usual quick cleaning method. I just removed the outer petals until I exposed the inner petals which were only top 1/3 green. I cut off the top 1/3 of the green parts. Using a small paring knife, I cut off the end of the stem and peeled the skin. I also quickly cleaned the remnants of the outer petals around the base. Unless it is very small, I cut the artichokes in half. I removed any chokes that may have developed using the tip of the knife. It sounds complicated and tedious but once you get used to this process, it goes fairly quickly. I threw the cleaned artichokes into acidulated water (water plus lemon juice) to prevent discoloration. 

Pre-cooking: I boiled the cleaned baby artichokes for 15 minutes in salted water (image below left). You can see one with undeveloped choke (right of the right image below) and one with the choke which was removed (left of the right image below).

Sautéing: In a frying pan, I added olive oil (1 tbs) and finely chopped pancceta (3 slices) on medium low flame. I rendered the fat from the pancceta and made it brown and crispy by sautéing for several minutes. I set the pancceta aside on a paper towel lined plate. In the same pan I added shallot (1 medium, finely chopped) and garlic (one clove finely chopped) on medium-low flame. After a few minutes, I added the baby artichokes, olives (I used an assortment of black olives, some requiring pitting). I sauteed for a few more minutes and added white vermouth (or white wine, 1-2 tbs) and kept braising until the liquid was almost all gone. I added salt, black pepper and chopped parsley. I served it topped with the crispy pancceta and shavings of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese.

This is a good accompaniment for wines; either white or red. We had this with Robert Young Estate Winery Red Winery Road Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2005. This is a middle of the road decent cab--very good if not spectacular.

Parsnip potage パースニップポタージュ

We like to have soup or some kind of side dish we can eat on a weekday. We make these dishes in quantity on the weekend and then use it the rest of the week. My wife suggested we clean up parsnips パースニップ* in our fridge by making some kind of soup or potage. She said she would like to have pieces of carrot in the potage to provide texture and color. Without further detailed instructions from her, this is what I came up with (not based on any recipe).

(*Digression Alert!: I did not know this root vegetable until I came to the U.S.. I am not sure this is available in Japan. Parsnip is know as the most favorite food of Gub-gub the pig in Dr. Dolittle's story. I read the entire series as a kid. It was translated by Masuji Ibuse 井伏鱒二 into Japanese. But I do not remember how he translated "parsnip" into Japanese. Japanese Wiki states "オランダボウフウ" to be a Japanese name for parsnip but that does not help most Japanese readers.)

I used parsnips (6), peeled and cut into small cubes, onion (1 medium, finely chopped), fennel bulb (1/3 chopped, I just happened to have this leftover and is optional), celery (3 stalks finely chopped), garlic (2 cloves, finely chopped) and potatoes (2 medium, Yukon gold, peeled and cubed). 

In a large pot on medium flame, I added light olive oil (4 tbs) and sauteed the above except for potatoes and parsnips for several minutes or until the onion became semi-transparent. I then added the parsnips and potatoes. I poured in low-sodium Swanson chicken broth (32 oz), bay leaves (3) and let it simmer for 30 minutes or until all the vegetables are soft. I then pureed it using an immersion blender. I added light cream (1/2 cup) toward the end of pureeing.

Meanwhile, I cooked carrot (4 medium, peeled and cut into small round or half round) in the chicken broth with bay leaves (2) and black pepper corns (4-5).

I tasted the potage and added salt and fresh ground white pepper (I did not use black pepper to prevent black specks from floating in the white potage).

To serve, I added the cooked carrot and chopped parsley as a garnish. Parsnips have nice sweetness with a very distinctive flavor. The potatoes and cream added silky smoothness to the potage. Since carrot and parsnip are "relatives", this combination worked very well. Very satisfying and unctuous soup/potage to start and my wife was impressed with this parsnip potage. I said I could make a similar potage from "daikon" 大根 but she did not encourage me in that endeavor--can't understand why.

(The following was added on April 22, 2012)

Parsnip potage Version2

This is another variation of parsnip soup. One weekend, my wife decided to make another version of parsnip potage. The addition of apples made the potage very good and different from the original.

2 packages of parsnips cut into pennies (about 12 parsnips)
2 onions diced
2 apples diced
1 potato peeled and diced

1 1/2 Package of Low-sodium and non-fat chicken broth (Swanson bland, one package=32oz)

 sweat the onions, add the parsnips and potatoes and chicken broth. Cook until tender. Just before pureeing add the apple and let them cook a few minutes. Puree. Lovely fresh flavor. The apple and parsnips go well together.

Sake-steamed chicken with togarashi soy sauce mayonnaise 酒蒸し鶏肉の唐辛子醤油マヨネーズ

This is just another way to serve "sakamushi" 酒蒸し or sake steamed chicken. I just sliced sakamushi chicken breast and served it with a mixture of 7 flavored Japanese red pepper flakes 七味唐辛子, soy sauce and mayonnaise (actually I did not mix it, you need to mix it before dipping.) It looks like lots of red pepper but mayo dampens the heat.

This mayonnaise concoction reminds me of my old drinking days in Susukino 薄野, Sapporo. Many bars served grilled semi-dried "Komai*" fish with this mayo. I remember in the bars which had hostesses, they carefully removed the meat from the fish and dipped it in the mayonnaise concoction and fed you (you paid dearly for the attention, of course).

Komai こまい is a small fish which belongs to the cod family. The best season is in the coldest time of the winter in Hokkaido and traditionally fished by a net under the ice (after breaking the surface ice, of course). Thus, the kanji letter for this fish is 氷下魚 meaning under-the-ice fish. This appears to be rather peculiar to Hokkaido and was (at least when I was there) one of the popular drinking snacks in bars and drinking places in Sapporo. This is not unlike shishamo ししゃも and Hokkadoian (or Hokkaidoites?, an erudite English speaker will have to tell me which.) appear to like small semi-dried fish as a drinking snack.

In any case, I do not think I can find "komai" around here but this mayo concoction worked well with sakamush chicken.

Ginger pork cutlet 豚肉のショウガ味カツレツ

This is a hybrid between ginger pork and pork cutlet. 　I just came up with this dish thinking it  would go well with a drink.  This could be a main dish if you serve a larger amount with veggies and a starch. This dish is also perfect for bentou 弁当 or Japanese lunch box.

I used the trimmings from a pork tenderloin which was pounded very thin. I marinated it with sake and soy sauce (3 tbs each or 1:1 ratio) and grated ginger (1 tsp). I purposely did not make the marinade sweet at all but you could replace half the amount of sake with mirin if you like slightly sweet. I coated the individual pieces with the marinade and then put them in a sealable container and let them marinade in the refrigerator for several hours. 

I could have sauteed the pork in the classic "sougayaki" 生姜焼き style but, at the very last moment, I decided to make it sightly different. After I removed the excess marinade from the pork using paper towels, I dredged it with potato starch or katakuriko 片栗粉. I added light olive oil (slightly more than for sauteing) in a frying pan on medium heat, and fried the pork (1-2 minutes per side) until both sides were crisp and brown. I added more oil as needed to cook all the pieces in small batches.

The resulting dish had a nice crispy crust with bright ginger and soy sauce flavor. Since it is highly seasoned, no need for any sauce. This turned out to be exactly how I intended; a cross between shouga-yaki and pork cutlet. Any drink will go with this. We had this with Casali di Bibbiano Argante Toscana Rosso Red Blend 2006 (This was our last bottle of this wine). If you are a white wine drinker, Chardonnay would be a good choice. Of course, beer and sake would be nice as well.

Japanese sake "Juyondai" 14th generation 十四代 別撰純米吟醸 播州山田錦

As I mentioned before, most of the sake imported from Japan come from large scale producers. Small-scale production sake, especially those with cult followings, are difficult to find here. Even in Japan, there is some hype about the likes of Juyondai sake which maintains the aura of being a special, cult and difficult to find sake. One of the sake connoisseur bloggers in Tokyo appears to have no problem getting or tasting these cult sakes, however. Some time ago, I found one of the Juyondai sake listed on the website of the "Sakaya" of New York. I ordered it on-line and then promptly got a phone call from them saying that it had been sold out almost as soon as they received it. I asked them to contact me as soon as the Juyonday came in next time. A few months later, I got a phone call from Sakaya saying that they had received the shipment. I wanted to order a few bottles but was told there was a limit of one per customer. So, I got one bottle of Juyondai 十四代 along with Isojiman 磯自慢 and Kokuryu 黒龍.

There are so many different kinds of small batch brews under the name "Juyondai" which were brewed by Takagi sake brewery in Yamagata 山形県高木酒造. It  appears that they do not have their own website (I suppose there is no need to advertise). The one I happened to get this time is "bessen junmai-ginjou"  別撰 純米吟醸 made from "Banshu Yamada-nishiki" 播州山田錦, based on the name, I assume it was made from Yamada-nishiki rice grown in a part of Hyougo 兵庫 prefecture. Obviously, this might not have been one of the better brews by Takagi brewery but this is what was available. I had it shipped, while the weather was not too hot, overnight from New York and promptly refrigerated it upon receipt.

To pay adequate respect to this sake, I ordered toro, amaebi and uni from Catalina. The first night, after we accumulated all these ingredients for a blow-out gourmet experience, was a Friday.  Since we did not have time for proper preparation and to ease ourselves into the over indulgence, we did not bust into the Juyondai but opened Isojiman instead. We had it with some toro sashimi, uni and amaebi. Isojiman is a nice sake with a fruity crispness but not much of an umami component. Nonetheless this meal presaged good things to come. 

The next day was devoted to anticipation of the full-fledged feast we were planning for the evening. The center piece was, of course the sake complemented with excellent sashimi. The toro was blue fine tuna, chu-toro bordering on Ootoro, and was melt-in-your mouth excellent. I also made an "flower arrangement" of Ko-toro or slightly fatty tuna. The uni was plump luscious golden California uni and it was wonderful as usual.  

Since some of the amaebi was big, I made my usual ceviche, this time with lime juice and yuzu juice from the bottle mixed with soy sauce and real wasabi. I added slices of drunken tomato, Champagne mango cubes, and garnished it with "ume-su" 梅酢 seasoned daikon slices cut in a cherry blossom shape.

Of course, I had to serve fried amaebi heads. This cannot go wrong

Juyondai is indeed an excellent sake. It showed clean crisp tastes with hints of green apple and melon with a light umami component. But in my book, this does not justify the price and the difficulty of getting it. Other more readily available sakes such as our house sake Yaegaki "mu", which is a simpler sake, has a better PQR. Others, for example, Muromachi jidai 室町時代 is in a lower price range and has a more complex umami component than the Juyondai jungin we tasted here. Even Kokuryu which is not as fruity and crisp has more "umami". This is non-issue since it is next to impossible to get Juyondai and even Muromachi-jidai (except in a restaurant such as Sushi Taro) is not readily available here. Having said that, I will be "standing in line" to get other Juyondai brews if one becomes available.  I do not think the chance of this happening is particularly good, so, most likely, we have to wait until we visit Japan next time. 

This was a particularly memorable meal. In fact it bordered on being too much of a good thing but we thoroughly enjoyed it!

Fava beans, grilled and boiled 焼きそら豆、茹でそら豆

We love the Asakusa 浅草 area of Tokyo. On one of our visits to Asakusa long ago, we stumbled into a small izakaya run by a husband and wife team. Beside ourselves, there were only two other customers at the counter--a past-middle-aged couple, clearly not husband and wife, but having fun talking, eating and drinking. It happened to be fava bean season or "sora-mame" そら豆. They ordered up a dish of the beans. We overheard (no not overheard that implies we were intruding, they were actually over talking) about how good the beans were. We had never seen them before and asked what they were. They generously offered us a taste. We agreed with their assessment and promptly order a dish for ourselves. It was indeed very good. Sora-mame is quintessential Izakaya food usually served simply boiled with a side of salt.

In the U.S., the easiest way to get fava beans is to buy a package of frozen sora-mame in a Japanese grocery store. They are not bad but usually a bit too mushy. Occasionally, while in season, we can get fresh fava beans in a pod from a near-by gourmet market. To choose which pods to buy, I press the pods between my fingers lightly to make sure there are beans inside. Some pods may look big and luxurious from outside but may not contain many beans.

I tried making them both grilled in the pod (in a toaster oven on "high" broil for 10 minutes turning once until the surface of the pods develops blotches of brown) and boiled (beans removed from the pods and boiled for 5 minutes in salted water). To us, there is no big difference in taste and consistency but we have not yet tried grilling fava beans in the pod on a charcoal fire, which may make a difference.

We like to peel the skin from the beans just before eating (the quintessential finger food) (see image on the left) and eat it with just a touch of salt (literally, we use Kosher salt with larger crystals).

Digression alert: Fava beans contain several pharmacologically active substances which may have some health effects on people with certain conditions. The most famous is "favism" in which an individual with the genetically inherited enzyme difficiency (G6PD deficiency) can have serious hemolytic anemia after consuming fava beans. Another is the interaction of the ingredients in fava beans with MAO-inhibitors. Among people taking  MAO-inhibitors (probably to treat depression), eating fava beans (or certain aged cheeses) may produce a hypertensive episode called "cheese effect". Fava beans also contain L-dopa, (a substance used to treat Parkinson's) although the health effects of the L-dopa found in fava beans may not be significant. So, before you order up "sora-mame", make sure you do not have G6PD deficiency or you are not taking a MAO-inhibitor. Consuming a large amount of "sora-mame" at Izakaya in an attempt to treat your Parkinson's disease is also not recommended. Please seek the professional advice of an appropriate specialist.

Fortunately, we do not have any of these restrictions and simply enjoy "sora-mame". It will go with any drink but sake is the best match for us.

Fresh corn pudding 新鮮コーンのプディング

My wife made this dish. It's a very simple dish but extremely good to make when fresh corn on the cob is available. Fresh corn has been available in the local grocery store for a few weeks (Late April and May). We are not sure where it comes from--we surmised Florida, certainly not locally grown.

Freshly picked corn is very sweet but it is my understanding that soon after harvest, the sugar  in the corn converts back to starch resulting in a far less pleasant product referred to as "starchy" corn. I had a friend who loved corn and used to have "corn parties". He would plant a patch of corn so that it ripened in sections over the course of a season. When a section was ready to harvest he invited some friends over and had a party. The purpose of the party was to eat the corn at the height of its perfection. After some libations and socializing, the guests retreated to the corn patch where they harvested their own dinner. Everyone came back to the house where a large pot of boiling, salted water was ready and waiting. The rest was simple--shuck, boil, eat and enjoy. The time between harvest and cooking was a max of 5 minutes. He was right; the corn was perfection. While we can't have such "corn parties", this corn pudding is next best thing.

My wife used a box grater to grate the corn kernels off the cob (They have to be grated. Cutting them off does not have the same effect). She then scraped the bare cobs with the back of a knife to make sure she captured any corn "milk" left behind. She then poured the grated mixture into a small ramekin like the one seen above. She did not add any seasoning or additional ingredients--it's all just corn. Believe it or not, the corn from two ears went into one small ramekin. She then simply baked this in a 350F toaster oven for 30 minutes.

Before serving she sprinkled some Kosher salt on top (the salt enhances the sweetness). This was so sweet and creamy--the essence of summer corn. Somehow grating the corn makes it sweeter. My wife tasted a kernel from this batch before grating it to see how it tasted and she said it was so-so. But then we tasted the grated mixture and it was suddenly much sweeter. Corn pudding is also much easier to eat than boiled corn on the cob; no kernels to stick between your teeth. This could be served as a vegetable side dish but we like it as a drinking snack. (You know our priorities). This will go with any drink; beer, wine, sake. My wife suggested it was sweet enough to be served as a dessert...but I'm not going there. 

Miso grilled Spanish mackerel サバの味噌焼き

This is another dish I made from the Spanish mackerel I bought the other day. This is based on the recipe in a cook book called "the Japanese Grill" but it is a rather standard recipe.

Mackerel fillet: After removing the pin bones as before, I salted both sides of the fillet with Kosher salt. I wrapped it in kitchen parchment paper and then with a paper towel and placed it in a Ziploc bag overnight in the refrigerator. This process removes excess moisture. You could use a special wrapping sheet popular in Japan called "Picchito" ピッチト 食品脱水シート. Wrapping the fillet with this sheet will produce a similar effect without using salt. After 24 hours, the paper wrappings were moist indicating excess water indeed had been extracted. I wiped any remaining moisture from the surface of the fillet with a paper towel.

Miso marinade: As suggested in the recipe, I used sweet "saikyou" miso 西京味噌 (1/4 cup) but if you use regular white or red miso, you could add sugar. I added mirin (2-3 tbs) to the miso until a thick sauce consistency was reached. After I smeared the miso marinade on both sides of the fillet, I wrapped it with plastic wrap and put it back in the Ziploc bag. I marinaded it for 6 hours before grilling. The original recipe calls for 3 days of marination.

Grilling: I used a Weber grill with lump charcoal. As usual, I started the fire using a Charcoal starter chimney. I spread hot coals over only half of the grill to make hot and cool areas. After cleaning the grill, I sprayed Weber-brand grilling spray (this does not flare up even with hot coals underneath). I started the meat side down on the hot area of the grill for 2 minutes or so and flipped it over to grill the skin side for one to two more minutes. Because of the sugar content of the miso marinade, it is very easy to char the fish like I did here (image below right, but it still tasted good).  I moved the fillet to the cool side of the grill and put the lid on and finished cooking for 2-3 more minutes.

This is a rather classic but excellent preparation of mackerel. If has been a long time since we have had this kind of fish and taste, so we really savored it. The fish has a nice firm texture with a miso flavor. The charcoal grilling added to the flavor and it tasted even better the next day served cold. We'll be doing this one, again. I served it as a drinking snack with stewed sweet potato and azuki. For a drink, we are partial to sake for this dish and had "turbid" sake called Momokawa Organic Nigori from Sake One. This is not too sweet with a smooth rice residue (you do not have to chew the sake) and went well with this rustic grilled mackerel.

"Sekihan", red rice 赤飯

As mentioned before,  I found Japanese red beans or azuki at a newly opened neighborhood gourmet grocery store. Despite the fact that I do not particularly care for it, I ended up making a rice dish called "sekihan" meaning "red rice". Japanese consider red an auspicious color especially in combination with white. Sekihan 赤飯 is the traditional celebratory food especially when served with a grilled whole Japanese red snapper or "tai" 鯛. In the old days, when you had something to celebrate in your family, you made sekihan in large quantity and distributed it to the neighbors and your friends. I do not remember my mother making sekihan when I was a kid. Maybe my family didn't follow this tradition (or perhaps, we did not have much to cerebrate). I do remember, however, we were often the recipient of sekihan.

For most of Japan, un-sweetened azuki is used to make sekihan.  In Hokkadio, where I originally came from (also reportedly in Yamanashi 山梨 and a part of Aomori 青森 prefectures), sekihan is often made with "ama-nattou" 甘納豆 which is types of beans cooked in and coated with sugar. Although it contains the word "nattou", this has nothing to do with natto that fermented, sticky and smelly soy bean every(no)body likes. These sweetened beans are usually eaten as "sweets" rather than used in cooking. It appears the inventor of this recipe is known and her recipe was popularized by the local Hokkaido Newspaper. (This was discussed in detail in a digital food column of Nippon Keizai Shinbun, in Japanese). People in the Kanto 関東 area (Tokyo area) supposedly prefer to use another kind of bean called "sasage" ささげ in leu of azuki. This is apparently a type of cowpea. I am only familiar with black-eyed pea in this category of beans/peas in the U.S. but I assume there must be red or brown colored varieties in Japan used in sekihan. I read that the reason Kantoites prefer not to use azuki is because azuki tends to rupture while cooking and for those who may have been samuri descendants, the  rupturing beans reminded them of "seppuku" or "harakiri" (they are so sensitive!). It is also common to use red food coloring especially for commercially prepared sekihan or the kind made using "ama-nattou"--to heighten the color of the commercial product and because ama-nattou does not color the rice. Anyhow, I decided to make the dish in the traditional way (for most of Japan) with azuki beans.

Azuki: I prepared azuki as posted before and set aside the cooking liquid and cooked beans before I sweetened the rest. I had about 1/2 cup each of cooked azuki and the cooking liquid. I separated the azuki and the cooking liquid and set aside. 

Rice: I used sweet or glutenous rice (1 and half cup) and regular Japanese short grain rice (half cup). I washed both together until the water became clear. I drained it and set it aside.

In an electric rice cooker, I added the washed rice and the azuki cooking liquid. I added water to the 2 cup mark. I added the cooked azuki. After the rice was cooked (image below left), I mixed the azuki and rice with a wood spatula called "hera" へら trying not to break the azuki.

I also made a traditional seasoning for sekihan called "gomashio" ごま塩．To enhance the flavor, I dry roasted black sesame seeds (2 tbs) with Kosher salt (1 tbs) in a dry flying pan (right image below).

I sprinkled gomashio over the sekihan and served. I do not think this is worth the effort but the roasted sesame and salt indeed added a lot.  The nutty and salty flavors were definitely needed here.  After making sekihan, I felt like, at least, I paid adequate respect to azuki beans and this is the last of my azuki dishes.

Spanish mackerel stewed in miso さばの味噌煮

Appropriate ingredients are the most important factor in making new and interesting dishes. At the newly opened gourmet grocery store, today's catch (whole fish selection) included some large Spanish mackerel and sardines. Although I was tempted to get the sardines or "iwashi" イワシ because I had some recipes I wanted to try, they looked like they had been in a bar fight the night before, and were much the worse for wear. So we got the Spanish mackerel. Again, it is difficult to compare the type of mackerel available in Japan vs. the ones available here.  The Spanish Mackerel we got was a bit over 4 lbs and was much larger than Japanese mackerel or まさば. The type of mackerel we call "Boston mackerel" here appears to be closer to Japanese mackerel. Size aside, these mackerels have characteristics similar to oily blue fish; nice firm reddish flesh and shiny silver blue-gray skin. They also have a rather strong taste and spoil very quickly. The classic Japanese preparation is to use miso when cooking mackerel.

Preparing mackerel: I had our Spanish mackerel filleted. I had to remove the small pin bones in the center line of the head portion of the fillet using a Japanese fish bone puller (I have one that I got from Global or you could use a needle nose pliers). Since the fish we got was rather large, I used one fillet for this miso stewed dish and the other for a miso grilled dish. I cut the fillet into half lengthwise and then cut crosswise into 2 inch wide pieces. I made shallow scores in the skin surface as well.

Simmering liquid: I combined dashi (200ml), mirin (4 tbs), sake (4 tbs), red miso (3 tbs) and sugar (2 tbs) in a frying pan. I also added ginger root (4 thin slices). After coming to the boil, I turned the heat down tasted it. I thought it was too strong and added more water and sake but, in retrospect, I should have left it alone.

I placed the prepared mackerel in the pan skin side up and also added segments of scallion all around. After coming back to boil, I turned the heat down to simmer, I put an otoshi-buta and a regular lid (askew) and simmered it for 15-20 minutes (see image below).

Since the miso mixture was still a bit runny, after I removed the fish, I reduced it a bit to make a thicker consistency.

To serve, I garnished it with thin threads of ginger ("hari-shouga" 針ショウガ) and scallion cut thinly along the long axis called "shiraga-negi" しらが葱 or white hair scallion. Since I do not have naganegi 長ネギ or Tokyo scallion, this was the best I could manage.

This is a classic and very comforting dish--perfect as an accompaniment for sake. Miso and mackerel are indeed a winning combination.

Stewed kabocha and red bean カボチャのいとこ煮

This is a variation on the theme of azuki dishes. Instead of sweet potatoes, Japanese squash or kabocha is used. This is sometimes called "Itoko-ni" いとこ煮 meaning "cousin stew" but why it is called that is not clear to me or if any stewed dishes with azuki would be called "Itoko-ni".

In any case, I do not think this is one of our favorite dishes. I cooked the kabocha exactly same as before. Toward the end of the cooking, I added cooked and unsweetened red beans and dissolved a small mount of miso paste to taste. This dish needs something more. Somehow unsweetened azuki does not work well here for us.

So I made another version few days later (image below). I added my version of slightly sweetened azuki instead. I also added a bit more miso at the end than before.  This tasted much better. The sweetness was contrasted with some nutty salty tastes. We liked this much better than the original version.

Marinated tuna "zuke" sashimi 鮪の漬け

I posted maguro-zuke to make a low-quality frozen saku of yellow-fin tuna palatable before. Of course, if you make "zuke" from good blue-fin tuna like I did here, it tastes even better. Since I happened to have Vidalia spring onion, which is extra mild and sweet, I also used that to served this zuke.

Marinade: I made some adjustment and used a more simple and less potent sake and soy sauce mixture (3 tbs each or 1:1 ratio) with the addition of grated ginger (1/2 tsp, I used grated ginger but you could add just the juice) and dry roasted (in a dry frying pan) white sesame seeds (1/2 tsp, coarsely ground in a Japanese mortar or in "suribachi" すり鉢). Compared to the original, I do not use any mirin and the amount of soy sauce is less.

Tuna: I used blue-fin tuna (slightly fatty or ko-toro 小トロ portion) which was from Catalina Offshore Porducts. I did the usual "yubiki" 湯引き process to make the surface of the tuna white (10 seconds in simmering water) and then cooled down immediately in ice water.

I sliced the tuna in rather thick pieces as seen above and marinated it in a flat sealable container in one layer for 2-3 hours in the refrigerator.

To serve, I sliced Vidalia spring onion after halving it and placed the slices on the bottom of the plate, added a few strips of shaven carrot for color, surrounded that with sliced (on a slant) American mini cucumber. I drizzled the marinade and olive oil over them. Since I had daikon left after making a daikon garnish for sashimi the night before, I grated it and squeezed out the excess moisture, added yuzu juice and made a small mound in the center of the plate.

After removing the excess marinade from the "zuke" pieces, I arranged the slices around the grated daikon. I added a small dab of real wasabi on the side.  To eat, we put a bit of wasabi on the zuke slice, added some onion, carrot and cucumber slices on top. The tuna has a remarkable resemblance to good beef. The marinade did not make the tuna "slimy" but infused lots of flavors. The real wasabi is really not too hot like the "fake" kind but has a nice fresh wasabi flavor. Sweet Vidalia is also perfect with this combination. If you feel the zuke is a bit salty (not here though) or regradless, you could add yuzu infused grated daikon on the top as well. This proves that if you make zuke from good tuna, the end result is better. For a drink, there is not much choice--it has to be cold sake.

Simmered sweet potato and azuki beans さつまいもとあずきの煮付け

Because our new grocery store had raw azuki beans, I made several dishes with them. Here is the first sort of savory dish which can be served as a vegetable side dish.

There is some confusion regarding sweet potato and yam especially in North America. As far as I can tell the ones available in North America, either white or orange varieties, are sweet potatoes. The orange variety are frequently referred to as "yams" which appears to be a misnomer. True "yams" are reportedly botanically different from sweet potatoes. In any case, the potato I bought for this dish is the orange variety and is similar to Japanese "satusma-imo".

I simply peeled and cut the sweet potatoes (3) into half inch thick half moon shaped pieces and simmered in dashi broth just enough to cover (I guess about 200ml. I took a shortcut and used instant granulated dashi). I tested for to see if they were done by piercing with a bamboo stick after 15-20 minutes. I seasoned them with mirin (2 tbs), soy sauce (3 tbs) and sugar (1 tbs) and further simmer for several minutes. I added slightly sweetened cooked azuki beans (if using canned cooked azuki, use the unsweetened variety) and let them warm up for another 4 minutes.

It is a bit sweet but very mildly so. The combination of slightly sweetened azuki beans and sweet poteto is excellent. Can this be a drinking snack? Possibly, but I have to say I would probably have something else with a drink.

Pork pot roast and scallion salad 煮豚と葱のサラダ

This is another variation of small dishes using nibuta/yakibuta 煮豚／焼豚. This is based on a recipe from Otsumami Yokocho page 33.

To make this dish is quick and easy. This is for one small serving as seen above. Only thing is that you need to have leftover Japanese pork pot roast. I had less than 1 inch thick pork roast left. I just sliced it into thin rectangles (or cut into "tanzaku" 短冊, which is a small elongated rectangle card on which you scribble down a traditional Japanese short poem using a brush and ink.)

Dressing: I mixed soy sauce (2 tsp), dark sesame oil (2 tsp), sugar (1/4 tbs), rice vinegar (1/2 tsp) and Chinese hot sauce/paste* (1/6 tsp or more as you like), grated garlic (1/4 tsp) and ginger root (1/4 tsp) in a small bowl.

Scallion: I just sliced a scallion thinly on the bias including some of the green parts.

Just dress all the ingredients and serve. It is quite good and quite different from similar salads I made before. We like both variations very much. This one has more assertive flavors from the garlic, ginger, sesame oil as well as red chili paste.

(* "Tobanjan"  Hot bean sauce 豆瓣酱 or Chili garlic sauce 蒜蓉辣椒醬, I used the latter. You could substitute with any hot sauce you may have.)

Sweet red bean and rice cake ぜんざい

This is obviously not Izakaya food at all and is probably the ultimate antithesis of it. I never thought I would be making this dish. But the aforementioned new gourmet grocery store has a large section of bulk grains and beans. All kinds of interesting items can be found there and you could even grind the grains of your choice or in combination to make your own flours. I actually found red beans or azuki 小豆 あずき (altenetive spelling, "adzuki"). I have never seen raw azuki beans being sold in the U.S. before* (canned cooked azuki is available). Tokachi plane 十勝平野 in Hokkaido 北海道, the northernmost island of Japan where I am originally from, is famous for producing azuki.  I have never attempted to cook azuki before--and there are reasons that I haven't. The most common use of azuki is to make Japanese sweets called "an" 餡, from which traditional Japanese sweets such as "Yokan" 羊羹 and "Zenzai" ぜんざい etc are made. I do not particularly care for them. They are also used to make "red rice" or "sekihan" 赤飯, a traditional celebratory food, which, I did not particularly like as a kid, liked even less as an adult and avoided eating if at all possible. Despite all this, when I saw the azuki in the bin, I had to get some. I have been in the U.S. too long, perhaps (or maybe the novelty of the situation overcame me).

*I was wrong about this. I simply was not looking for it before.  I did find raw red beans, vacuum packed, as well as canned cooked - both sweetened and un-sweetened - red beans in our Japanese grocery store (only one left in DC area).

The above picture is a classic Japanese sweet called "zenzai" ぜんざい or "O-shiruko" お汁粉 consisting of sweet azuki beans and grilled "mochi" rice cake. To my surprise, this was the best version of this dish I ever made. (Since this is the first time I ever made it "best" was not hard to achieve). But above and beyond that it was also the best I ever tasted. Granted, I've only ever eaten it a few times before and that was a long time ago. Even my wife agreed that this was the best she's eaten (she may actually have eaten some in Asakusa as recently as few years ago). If memory serves me correctly, the last time I had this dish was when I was in high school accompanying my classmate (sweetheart).....of course, back then this was something "girls" liked to eat. I recall it was sickeningly sweet and the only reason I ate it was because my classmate wanted some, not because I liked to eat "zenzai" )

In any case, a quick internet search revealed more than a few entries on how to cook azuki properly. I read a few of them and amalgamated them into the recipe I used. I think the secret was that I was careful not to make it too sweet.

Azuki beans look like this (image below left), I think I had about 1 pound. I washed and soaked the beans in plenty of water overnight. I cooked the beans on high flame using the water they soaked in. When the water came to a boil, I turned the flame down to a vigorous simmer (if such a term exists--it is just a tad below "gentle boil") for 10 minutes. I drained and washed the beans in cold running water. I put the beans back in the pot and added fresh cold water (3 times the volume of the beans). After the water started boiling I turned it down to a vigorous simmer. Small white bubbles or scum soon covered the surface, I skimmed it off repeatedly. If the water level went down too far, I added more hot water. After 30-40 minutes, it looks like this (image below right).  I tasted the beans, they were now soft. I set aside a portion of the simmering liquid and beans to use for other dishes, and continued making this dish. It appears important to add sugar in stages to keep the beans soft. So I added about 1/4 cup first. I cooked it for a while, tasted it (not sweet enough even for me) and add more sugar until I thought the sweetness was right (for me, that is. It must be a half of the recipe calls for). You could keep cooking to your desired consistency but I like it a bit soupy. I added a pinch (1/2 tsp) of salt at the end which supposedly enhances the sweetness.

I had some packaged mochi in the fridge left over from New Year. I cut the mochi into 4 small squares and toasted it in the toaster oven. (Since the mochi will become very sticky when cooked, I put the cubes on some aluminum foil). When it puffed up and browned slightly, I put it on the top of sweet azuki as see in the first picture.

My wife really liked this but said she would not consider it a dessert--Translation: "Do not attempt to serve this to me as a dessert.  If you would like to serve it as a starch side with the meal--perfectly acceptable".  In any case, I am planning to make some more savory dishes using azuki. No wine or sake will go well with this dish. "Bancha" 番茶 or "Hojicha" ほうじ茶, Japanese roasted tea will be the best bet as your choice of libation.

Hanger steak with port wine reduction and wasabi ハンガーステーキのポートワインバターソース山葵味

This was a celebration of sorts. We started the evening with my crab cakes (made from all jumbo lump crab meat without any assertive seasonings such as Tabsco or Jalapeno pepper this time). If I do say so myself, better crab cakes can not be had at any restaurant. (It is all in the quality of crab meat). We had this with a very crisp clean tasting California vintaged Sparkling wine, Mumm Napa Cuvee DVX 2001. We are partial to this wine, since it is connected to fond memories of our visit to the winery many years ago. We were club members at that time and one of the privileges of membership was free tasting samplers when we visited the winery. We spent a lovely afternoon, in Napa, on a spring day tasting samplers of sparkling wine overlooking the vineyard carpeted in the full bloom of bright yellow mustard flowers. Heaven!

The crab cake starter was followed by hanger steak with red wine vinegar, port wine reduction with real "wasabi".  This time I simply seasoned the hanger steak with Kosher salt and black pepper, seared it in a frying pan with olive oil and finished it in the oven to medium rare. I removed the steak to a plate loosely covered with an aluminum foil to rest. Meanwhile, I deglazed the "fond" with a small amount of red wine vinegar and reduced. I added port wine and again reduced. I poured back the jus accumulated on the plate where the meat was resting and finished it with pats of butter.  Off heat, I added a good amount of real Wasabi. You can see green specks on the steak in the picture above.

We opened a bottle from this year's shipment of Buccella 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon. We have been fans of Buccella wines for some time. They consistently produce a highly extracted quality wine. This vintage is no exception. It has complex black fruit upfront with dark chocolate and cinnamon notes with rather refined tannin. Perfect with the steak. Hanger steak is not as tender as tenderloin but may have more flavor. The real wasabi in the sauce gave a fresh note that was a bit like but different from horse radish. It added complexity and interest to the steak. This steak is best served sliced very thin--equipment alert: a really sharp steak knife may be required. This time I did not pre-slice the meat.

My wife served a small desert but at this point the details were fuzzy to me.

Stewed "Kakuni" Pork belly, the 3rd time is the charm 豚の角煮、三度目の正直！

As I mentioned, the new gourmet grocery store that recently opened near us has a much nicer meat section. To my delight, they had pork belly. I just had to try making this dish again with genuine pork belly. I have posted two previous attempts using salt pork and pork spare ribs. The pork spare rib version was better than the salt pork but finally I can try the "real McCoy" using pork belly.

As before I used this recipe by Atsushi Tsuchiya. I cut slightly more that one pound of pork belly (474 grams as seen below upper left) into 2 inch blocks. You can see how fatty the front portion of the belly meat is (below image upper right). I marinated it in soy sauce (4 tbs) (Image below lower left) for 10 minutes at room temperature. I then browned all sides of the pork in a sauce pan starting from the fatty side. I removed the meat and blotted the excess fat from the pan. I then put the meat and the remaining soy sauce from the marinade into the pan and turned the meat over to coat several times on medium low flame. I added sugar (20 grams) and sake (200 ml). After it simmered for 2-3 minutes and the alcohol evaporated, I added enough water to cover (about 200 ml) and covered the meat with hydrated kelp. I put a Piggy drop lid (otoshi buta) on the pan along with a regular lid (askew) and simmered it for 1 hour (below image lower right). I added more water as the liquid evaporated. I turned the meat over and simmered 2 more hours.

We tasted a little at this point--it was mighty good. I let it cool down to room temperature and then put it into the refrigerator. The next day, I removed the congealed fat from the surface and reheated.

I served it with blanched broccolini and thinly sliced scallion and a dab of Japanese hot mustard. The best part is the most fatty portion of the pork belly (you guessed it right!). It just melts in the mouth and is so sweet. The more meaty part is less tender. So for this dish, it is best to use pork belly and second best to use pork spare ribs. The only problem is that this is so incredibly good it must be lethal--so we should not be eating this too frequently. 

With this in mind we quickly and liberally self-medicated with red wine to counteract the effect of the pork fat. This was another vanilla-laden California Cab, Maxwell Creek Estate Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2008. The sweetness of the pork fat combined with the fruit forward and vanilla-laden cab was sublime! We will go back to enjoying more "subtle" and "austere" wines but this was a fun wine to sip. It was especially fun sitting outside in the sun on the deck enjoying perfect spring weather consuming pure pork fat.

Grilled branzini シーバスの焼き物

A new gourmet grocery store opened a few weeks ago. It is actually within walking distance. The store has been extremely popular, creating traffic jams and requiring police to direct traffic in and out of the underground parking garage. In any case, this has provided us with another venue to indulge our love of cooking--and eating. Among the other gourmet and international food items offered at the store are such "must haves" as ostrich and emu eggs (haven't tried them yet--still looking for recipes). The fish and meat sections are better than usual. Specifically they have whole fresh fish. The day we shopped, there were 5 kinds of whole fresh fish on display in large buckets packed with ice in front of the usual glass cases displaying fish fillets. At least we could smell and closely inspect the fish. We could have even touched them if we wanted but we hope not too many shoppers will do that. Among the five kinds offered, Branzini (or bronzini) looked best with nice clear eyes. Others such as large red snapper and black bass had cloudy eyes and did not look as good. Branzini is not a particularly interesting fish but we decided to get it.  Another name of Branzini is European sea bass. I suppose it is similar to Japanese sea bass or "suzuki" スズキ but to determine what is the Japanese equivalent and vise versa for fish is difficult, if not impossible.

We had it scaled and gutted but left the tail and head on (see below left). We like whole fish simply grilled on a charcoal fire. So, I just seasoned it with salt and pepper inside and out and stuffed the cavities with chopped fennel (including the feathery leaves), red onion, and slices of lemon a few hours before grilling (kept in the fridge). I cooked the fish on a direct hot charcoal fire (see below right) in a Weber kettle. I coated the skin with olive oil and used a special Weber-brand spray on the grill to prevent the skin from sticking.

I grilled the fish for 3-4 minutes per side covered with the lid half of the time to assure the meat was done before the skin got totally singed.

As you can see in the first image, I served it with spinach (briefly boiled, seasoned with soy sauce and bonito flakes wrapped in nori sheet and garnished with sesame seeds) and blanched broccolini with mustard soy sauce. I even did a decorative cut on the lemon (somewhat dated, about on par with that old warhorse sprigs of parsley garnish (not used here BTW, but, hey, it looks good).

Somehow, it is nice to have a whole fish. I just can not trust the freshness of filleted fish for one thing. Grilling fish with bone-in appears to add something and a fish head is always decorative (for Japanese particularly). Of course, the skin is always our favorite part.

Fried shishamo in sweet vinegar 揚げシシャモの甘酢漬け

This is a variation of "nanban" 南蛮, which is deep fried fish or meat marinated in sweet vinegar with red (hot) pepper and vegetable such as onion. Small fish such as "aji" 鯵 or Japanese jack mackerel is most commonly used but I posted one with chicken breast previously. Since I can not easily get aji, I used frozen "shishamo" シシャモ instead. This is a perfect small Izakaya dish which goes perfectly with sake.

Shishamo: I used the usual frozen kind (Capelin or "karafuto" shishamo). All had nice roe inside. Without defrosting, I dredged in potato flour and fried it in 370F peanut oil (I used the shallow frying technique) turning once for 5-7 minutes. After draining off the excess oil, I immediately soaked it in sweet vinegar marinade (see below).

Sweet vinegar: Sweet vinegar or "amazu" 甘酢 can be made ahead. It keeps a long time in the refrigerator. I put rice vinegar in a non-reactive (such as stainless steel or Pyrex) pan on low flame and added sugar (half the amount of vinegar, either by volume or weight, for example, one cup of vinegar and 1/2 of sugar) and a small amount (I used 1/3 tsp but could be more) salt. Stir and make sure the sugar is completely dissolved and let it come to a boil (called "nikiru" 煮きる), this makes the vinegar mellow. Let it cool down and put it in a plastic or glass container and keep it in the refrigerator. This can be used for many other recipes.

Marinade: I mixed sweet vinegar (2/3 cup), dashi (1/4 cup), mirin and soy sauce (1 tbs each). I added thinly sliced red onion and julienne carrot the night before. You can do this part a few days ahead. I like the veggies to marinated at least several hours or longer. To make it truly "nanban" you add red pepper flakes but I did not this time.

While the fried shishamo is still hot, I put it in the marinade with the vegetables already in. I cover the fish with marinated vegetables and let it marinate for at least 10 minutes or longer. I served it with the vinegared onion and carrot on the top.

We had this with cold sake (our house sake Yaegaki "mu"). I think sake or beer will go with this dish well but the acidity of the dish does not agree with wine. Of course every part of the fish  including head, bone and tail is eaten in this dish. "Waste not want not" never tasted so good.

Chicken wings simmered in soy sauce and vinegar 手羽の酢醤油煮

This is another variation on the ever popular bar/Izakaya chicken wing dish. I bought a package of chicken wings that had six wings in it. I removed the drumetts and used them to make  "curry flavored baked chicken drumetts". I made this dish from the remaining chicken wing tips but we did not eat it immediately. I reheated it the following evening. Although simmering (with or without vegetable) is a rather common Japanese way to cook chicken wings, I have not made this dish. I suggested this dish to my wife several times but my description of it did not elicit an ounce of enthusiasm. So I kept making baked, deep dried, or grilled wings with crispy skin instead.  This time, I showed my wife the picture from the Otsumami Yokocho Page 55 and convinced her to try this dish so that I could also blog about it. (I think the blogging ploy is what actually swayed her and she consented to eat the wings if I made them). I did not follow the recipe (for the simmering liquid) in Otsumami Yokocho thinking that it would be way too sweet for us. Instead, I used the same concoction I use to make poached chicken breast.

This dish is actually rather simple. For two small servings, I used 6 chicken wings after drumetts were removed.

Simmering liquid: Most of the recipes including Otsumami Yokocho's used either sugar or honey but I used mirin instead. I made a mixture of soy sauce, mirin, and black vinegar (Japanese style lighter kind or you could use regular rice vinegar or balsamic vinegar) (1/4 cup each or in equal amounts). I added ginger (several thin slivers) and garlic (one small clove, crushed). 

Cooking: In a small pan in which all six wings snugly fit, I poured the simmering liquid. It should just cover the wings. Initially, I put the pan on medium-high flame. As soon as it boiled, I tuned it down to simmer. (If any scrum forms on the surface, skim it off).  I put an otoshi-buta on the pot (Instead of a wooden lid, I used a newly acquired silicon lid called "pig cooking lid"*) and a regular tight fitting lid on the top. I simmered it for 30 minutes (turning once in the middle). After 30 minutes, I let it cool down to room temperature in the liquid.

*Digression alert: This silicon lid has a face of a pig with two small holes of the nostrils as steam vents and two ears as knobs to hold the lid. Japanese for lid is "futa" 蓋 but when you make a composit word with "Otoshi" meaning "to drop" in front, it will change to "buta" ("f" to "b" which is called "dakuon" 濁音) as in "Otoshi-buta" 落とし蓋. "Buta" 豚 also means "pig" in Japanese. So this is a whimsical "puny" product and works well.

Seasoned eggs: I also made seasoned eggs or 味付け卵. For this, I simply made soft boiled eggs (cooked for 8 minutes in simmering water). I used pasteurized eggs since I wanted to keep the yolks still a bit runny. I simply added the boiled eggs (shells off, of course) to the room temperature simmering liquid along with the chicken wings. You could serve the chicken wings and eggs after soaking the eggs in the simmering liquid for 30 minutes or so but I put the pan into the refrigerator at this point to eat it the next day.

The next evening, when I opened the pot I found that the liquid was completely jelled. This is because of all the collagen and protein that came from the chicken while it simmered. The liquid had become aspic or "nikogori" 煮凝り in the refrigerator. The surface also was thinly covered with chicken fat. Using a spoon, I scraped off all the visible fat from the surface and put the pan on the lowest flame to warm up. It's not necessary to boil it, just gently heat it to make the jelled liquid warm so it melts.

This was a bit messy to eat since you have to use your fingers but it was wonderful. The skin is totally different from the skin of grilled or baked chicken wings. It is very soft, unctuous with a nice smooth texture and taste. As Japanese often say, it has a lots of collagen and your skin will feel smooth after eating this. The egg was also wonderful (although soaked in seasoning liquid from pork pot roast may be slightly more flavorful). This also passed the "Mikey likes it" test with my wife. She expressed a great deal more enthusiasm than when I suggested making the dish. She ate every bit and then asked if there was any more. She suggested I make this dish again and in a much larger quantity. She also suggested I add red (hot) paper flakes (I was not expecting this kind of suggestion from her).

We started this evening with my potato salad (I used red onion this time) as an otoushi お通し.

Soft shell crab tempura redux ソフトシェルクラブの天ぷら 再登場

I posted this about year ago but it is the season for a soft shell crab again and when I saw live soft shell crabs at the market, I had to get them. I was amazed at how my presentation of this dish is so similar to last year's presentation. In any case, the only difference is that I tried a new tempura batter formula after seeing the America's Test Kitchen episode on tempura.

They take a somewhat scientific approach to making tempura batter light and crispy. The idea here is not to let the gluten develop too much. The most common Japanese way of making tempura batter is to use cake flour or weak flour "hakurikiko" 薄力粉 in combination with potato starch or "katakuriko" 片栗粉, whole egg or egg yolk, ice cold water and do not over mix it. The America's test kitchen's method is to add "alcohol" in this mix to further prevent gluten formation and to use seltzer water (which many Western chefs have done for tempura batter). So I wanted to try this to see if it made any difference.

Liquid component: Selzer water (non-sweetened, of course, 1 cup), Vodka (1 cup) and whole egg (one) mixed together.

Dry component: Cake flour (1 cup) and potato starch (1/4 cup). The original recipe calls for AP (all purpose) flour instead of cake flour.

Actually, my dry ingredients were proportionally much less for two crabs and 4 asparaguses. In addition I used only a portion of the liquid mixture to attain the desired consistency of the batter. 

The result was a good nice light crust but we were not sure this was any better than my regular batter with or without eggs. Soft shell crab may not be ideal to test the tempura crust because the shell gets crispy even if you don't use tempura batter. We will try again with a more appropriate food medium to assess the crust. In any case, we love soft shell crab tempura and we have to make it at least once in the season.

Talking about the season, the iris were in full bloom in our garden. We were surprised when this pure white one appeared among all its purple cousins. My wife arranged it using a Japanese-style base with "kenzan" 剣山. 

Baby artichoke, olives, and feta cheese salad ベイビイアーティチョーク、オリーブ、フェタチーズのサラダ

This is a perfect starter to have with wine. My wife bought a dozen baby artichokes. I proposed baby artichokes fried in olive oil as per Italian Jewish style but she wanted to steam them and eat the best part, the hearts. Since we had also just bought several different kinds of olives, we ended up making this impromptu Mediterranean-style salad.

Baby artichokes: My wife prepared the baby artichokes and I assembled them into a salad. She put water in the bottom of a large Dutch oven with olive oil, onion, lemon slices, black pepper corns and bay leaves. She then placed a steamer basket over the water. The baby artichokes were prepared by first cutting of the discolored stem end, and top of the petal. She also peeled the skin off the stem. Then, the artichokes were placed petal side down in the steamer basket and steamed for about 20 minutes or until the hearts could be pierced easily. After they cooled down enough to be safely handled, she removed the outer tough petals. She cut the larger ones in half to make sure the "chokes" were not developed and still tender. If there was a choke, she removed it. I quickly tossed the prepared artichoke hearts in olive oil and lemon juice while they were still warm.

Other ingredients: We had several kinds of olives including green ones in a spicy marinade, oil cured black etc. I just cut up these olives (pitted as needed). I also got a yellow streaked heirloom tomato (I do not know the varietal but it was called "locally grown". It must have been grown in a hot house. It was not as good as I expected). I skinned and diced it. I also used a 1/3 block of feta cheese, crumbled. I also added thinly sliced red onion.

Assembly: I mixed all the ingredients, splashed them with a good fruity olive oil, Champagne vinegar (very mild tasting), black pepper, salt, chopped parsley, and Tabasco. I added these in stages as I tasted the salad. 

I served this as a sort of antipasto with slices of three different kinds of cheese (Havarti with dill, aged cheddar, and smoked Gouda) and fig preserve. The gentle nutty sweetness of the fig preserve was a perfect accompaniment for the cheeses. The baby artichoke salad was served on a bed of baby greens. Since we had a really good crusty Ciabatta bread, I added a slice, toasted, with drizzles of olive oil.

We had this sitting outside on our deck. The wine we had was Bodegas Resalte de Penafiel, Ribera del Duero, Crianza 2005. This region of Spain produces lots of good value wines which we like. This one is made of 100% Tempranillo and aged 18 months in 90% French Oak and 10% American Oak. Wine Spectator chose this wine as #26 of Top 100 for 2010 and gave 94 points. I am not sure I would go that high (may be 91-2) but it is a very good wine nonetheless. With this starter dish, sitting on the deck outside in perfect weather, we could not complain. Besides, there was the added gift of no mosquitoes (yet!). The acidity of the Champagne vinegar was mild enough not to compete with the red wine we were having and the taste of artichokes and salty bursts of olive were perfectly wonderful.

Cold tofu with crispy Jako, ginger and broccolini 冷や奴のカリカリじゃこブロコリーニ添え

There are so many variations of the toppings and sauces which you can have with a block of cold tofu called "hiya-yakko" 冷や奴*. I posted few examples. We liked this one particularly. I also thought the picture is rather nice and somewhat artistic in the dark background and one tiny eye looking at you from the top of tofu.

The secret is crispy "jako" 雑魚. I sautéed (or almost shallow fried) jako (frozen) in a dark sesame oil for 2-3 minutes on low-medium heat. After they became very crispy and fragrant, I placed them on several layers of paper towel to absorb excess oil. I had blanched broccolini. I cut the florets and thinly sliced the stalk on bias. I dressed the broccolini with Japanese mustard soy sauce (Japanese mustard, sugar and soy sauce). I also added thinly julienned ginger or "hari-shouga" 針ショウガ on the top. I just used undiluted mentsuyu 麺つゆ (x2 concentrate) as a sauce.

Sesame-flavored very crispy jako in contrast to the cold and silky texture of tofu was nice with bright ginger flavor, albeit this is a very "usual" or "mundane" dish. This definitely calls for sake.

(*Digression alert!: "Yakko" or 奴 is a name of the lower class servant - footman equivalent - in a Samurai household in Edo period who often wore a "happi" 法被 coat with a large square design or crest on the back (see image on the left). In Edo period, Tokugawa Shogun 徳川将軍mandated that local lords to come visit and live a part of the year in Edo (present Tokyo) to confirm their allegiance to Shogun. The lord had to travel to Edo in a prescribed slow and elaborate "daimyo" procession or 大名行列, which was very costly by design. Certain numbers of "yakko" were required in the procession among other things. One of the reasons for the mandatory "daimyo" procession was to deplete the local lords' wealth so that they could not afford to build up military power against Shogun. I read somewhere that the reason for "yakko" wearing the generic square crest instead of specific family crests is that they were often temporarily hired to man the procession to reduce the cost. Although I can not vouch for this, I can imagine that the daimyo gazette classified page often had an entry such as "Have happi coat with square crest. Will travel." Thus, if you cut any food item into cubes, it is called "yakko ni kiru"  奴に切る or "cut into cubes". Hiya-yakko is cold -"hiya" means cold- tofu cut into a cube. There, this is more than you ever wanted to know.)