Scattered sushi cooked in Donabe 炊き込み寿司

This is a variation of scattered sushi "chirashizushi or chirashi sushi" ちらし寿司. Scattered sushi can have many different toppings including raw fish (in that case, it is called nama-chirashi 生ちらし or kaisen-chirashi 海鮮ちらし) but the most original form is made with mostly vegetables such as shiitake 椎茸, kanpyou 干瓢, renkon 蓮根, and gobou 牛蒡. The common way to make chirashizushi is to make white rice first, dress it in sushi vinegar and mix in or top with the seasoned cooked vegetables, other items, and garnish. 

In this version, I cooked rice and seasoned vegetables together as though I was making flavored rice. After the rice was cooked, I dressed the rice with sushi vinegar and garnished. There is not much difference between this and usual method but this tastes more like flavored rice than classic chirashizushi. I decided to make this after I made "ganmo" since there was excess dried shiitake mushroom and a last bit of gobou remained.

The following amount is for 2 Japanese cups of rice (360ml). The first thing I did was  "mis en place" as you can see on the left of the image below. The black thing is "me-hijiki" 芽ひじき about 1/3 cup after hydration, hydrated and sliced shiitake mushrooms (3-4 medium in size), shredded carrot (1/3 medium), gobou (1/4), and abura-age or deep fried tofu pouch (one regular size, cut in small strips).

I first put dark roasted sesame oil (1 tsp) in a frying pan and sautéed all the ingredients for one minute and added the soaking liquid from the shiitake mushrooms (about 1/2 cup), mirin (2-3 tbs), sake (2-3 tbs) and soy sauce (2 tbs) and simmered it for 20 minutes. I then separated the solids from the liquid (right in the image above). Whatever liquid I collected in the bowl below, I added water (or dashi broth) to make it 400ml.

Meanwhile, I washed the rice (2 Japanese cups, 1 cup=180ml) until the water was no longer turbid and strained it with a strainer.

In Kamado-san donabe rice cooker (or you could use an electric rice cooker), I put the washed rice, the seasoned vegetable mixture and seasoning liquid plus water (400ml) and mixed. As per the instructions that came with the donabe rice cooker, I set the inner and outer lids properly and cooked for 14 minutes on medium flame, turned off the flame and let it stand from 20 minutes without opening. 

While I was waiting for the rice to steep, I put about 1/2 cup of sushi vinegar (from the bottle) in a Pyrex measuring cup and heated up by microwaving. After 20 minutes of steeping, I mixed the rice, remove it to a mixing bowl, and dressed it with the sushi vinegar (use as much as the rice could absorb without getting too wet). I let it absorb for 5-10 minutes and served. I made thinly sliced cucumber (American mini-cucu, salted, kneaded and extra moisture squeezed out) and scrambled egg (for two small servings you see here, one large egg seasoned with salt). I also used thin strips of nori as a garnish. On the side, I served asazuke  浅漬け of cucumber, daikon, and carrot.

This was a nice ending dish for the evening.  The rice was still warm and has many more flavors in the rice than the regular scattered sushi. I used the leftover rice for lunch boxes the next. Even so, we have a lot left. (Just a head-up that you may be seeing more of this rice in the near future.)

Cheese stick wrapped in wonton skin チーズのミニ春巻き

When I was growing up this was what my mother used to make as a drinking snack when guests came over. She deep fried this but I just fried all the surfaces using a small amount of oil in a non-stick frying pan (with the hope that this was slightly less deadly than my mother's method).

I think this is a fairly common homey dish in Japan. Essentially, this is a cheese stick (Japanese "processed" cheese) wrapped in Gyoza or Wonton skin and fried.

Here I used smoked cheddar cheese cut into a stick that would just fit the Wonton skin. I wrapped it and sealed the end by moistening it.

Using a scant amount of oil (less than 1 tbs), I fried all four sides in a non-stick frying pan on low heat until all sides are golden and crispy. Depending on the cheese, it may melt or as in the case of smoked cheddar, it may soften but not actually melt much.

The image on the left shows cheese sticks wrapped with wonton skin before being fried. On the right is the finished stick made with aged but not smoked cheddar cheese which melted and puddled in the bottom of the wonton skin. If you use melting cheese, the cheese may leak from the seams of the wonton skin if you are not careful.

I served this with Dijon mustard. Either the smoked or non smoked cheddar cheeses were good. This type of snacks can't go wrong albeit it may not be too healthy.

Fried tofu ball がんもどき

Ganmodoki is one of the common items used in oden おでん. Usually I buy this ready made and  frozen but since I had 1/2 tofu left over and happened to have the other ingredients to make "ganmodoki" or "ganmo" for short, I gave it a go. Hot freshly fried ganmo is very different from what you eat as an oden item. 

Here I served it hot with grated ginger and soy sauce. (You can see a ginko nut peeking out of the cut surface.) There appear to be many theories as to the origin of the name. The corresponding kanji letter for ganmodoki is 雁擬き meaning "imitation goose" but this certainly does not resemble, in any way, shape or form, goose meat.

I had 1/2 a block of soft tofu to use. I wrapped it in a paper towel and microwaved it for 1 and half minutes and let it cool down, allowing the excess water to be absorbed into the paper towel. I placed the tofu and a whole egg (1 large) in a plastic blending container and homogenized using an immersion blender (#2 in the image below). You can use a food processor or Japanese mortar, suribachi すり鉢, for this as well.

Other ingredients included; dried shiitake mushroom (1 large, hydrated, stem removed and thinly sliced), black sea weed called "hijiki" ひじき (dried 1 tbs), gobou (1/4 tail end, leftover from the New Year) and carrot (1/4 medium). For hijiki sea weed, this time, I used "me-hijiki" 芽ひじき which is shorter and smaller than long hijiki or naga-hijiki 長ひじき I posted before. After hydration (with several changes of water for 30 minutes), hijiki increased in volume by almost 10 fold. I squeezed out the excess moisture and combined with shredded gobout and carrot.*  I added the soaking liquid from the shiitake (100ml) and simmered (#1 in the image below). I added mirin (2 tbs) and soy sauce (1 tbs) and further simmered on a low flame for 5-10 minutes until almost all the liquid was gone. I let it cool down and further removed any remaining liquid by squeezing. I added the mixture to the homogenized tofu and added potato starch (1 tsp or a bit more depending on the moisture level) and mixed well. Since I seasoned the vegetables, I did not add salt to the batter.

Moistening my hands with vegetable oil, I made small round disks (eight 2 inch diameter) and I also inserted ginko nuts (from a can) into the center (#3 in the image below). The batter was very soft and sticky. You could use two spoons in a manner similar to making quenelle and directly drop it in the oil.

* These were cut in  "sasagaki" ささがき. In Japanese curinary parlance, sasagaki is to shave off vegetables (mostly thin long items such as gobou) as though you are sharpening a pencil. Supposedly, the shape of the resulting pieces resembles small bambo ("sasa" 笹) leaves.

I deep fried it in 170C (340F) vegetable oil until golden (#4, turning a few times, total time of 4-5 minutes).

Homemade and hot freshly fried ganmo has an all together different taste and texture from the frozen variety we are used to. Hot and crunchy on the outside you can't go wrong. Although, we have to admit, this does not remind us of goose meat, it is quite good on is own right. A perfect drinking snack especially with cold sake.

Rice cake "mini" spring roll 餅のミニ春巻き

I saw this one in e-recipe. I meant to make a similar dish with cheese but I thought this was very interesting and perfect for using up the left over mochi 餅 or rice cake from New Year. I made this one weekend as a starter dish. Since I did not have spring roll wrap or skin, I used an American style square "gyoza" or wonton skin instead.

The inside has mochi wrapped in a seasoned nori sheet which was smeared with yuzu-koshou　柚子胡椒. I served the rolls on a bed of baby arugula. I poured a small amount of the peanut oil in which the rolls were cooked plus a splash of soy sauce over the arugula to make an impromptu dressing and to slightly wilt it. 

Mochi: I cut a square of mochi or kiri-mochi 切り餅 into 5 equal size sticks.

Nori: I just used a prepackaged and precut "ajitsuke-nori" 味付け海苔.

Since, the gyoza skin was a bit too small to wrap the mochi sticks or the nori, I used two together staggered like seen in image #1 below. I moistened the overlapping parts with water so that two sheets would stick together. I placed the nori on the gyoza skin (#1) and smeared Yuzu-koshou on the nori then put on the mochi stick (#2). As I rolled I moistened the overlapping gyoza skin and made tightly wrapped mochi sticks (#4).

Using a small non-stick frying pan with peanut oil (1 tbs) on low heat (#5). I turned them every 30 seconds or so initially so that all the overlapped skins got cooked evenly and held together (#5). Once all the sides were fried, I let it cook a longer time on one side (1 minute or so on each side) until the skin was brown, crispy, and the mochi was soft (total of 5-7 minutes). When I saw soft mochi starting to come out from the seam and knew it was done (see the very first picture in the beginning of the post).

This is a very nice dish. The gyoza skin was very crispy and the mochi was nicely soft but not too soft or too sticky. The nori and yuzu-koshou added some spiciness to the nice flavor. My wife could not figure out what was inside. She thought it was some kind of cheese. This is a very good way to use up left over mochi.

This dish will go with any drinks but we happened to be having Ladera Howell mountain Cab 2007. This wine was an excellent California Cab (I will give 91-92) but it is overhyped and 2007 may not be the best year for them.  At this price point, it is not cost effective (low PQR or Price-Quality-Ratio). We can have a similarly good Cali cab at 1/3 of the price for that matter.

Soba roll sushi 蕎麦寿司

You may ask, "Why would you make rolled sushi from soba noodles?" I am not sure why but the answer may be because we can or this is a more portable form of soba. For example, you could take this one more easily than traditional soba as a lunch. In any case, I had left over seasoned kanpyou かんぴょう and shiitake mushroom 椎茸 from making "futomaki" 太巻き roll and decide to make this dish. I have made it several times in the past and have seen recipes in a Japanese noodle cook book (in English) but two crucial pieces of information or steps, in my opinion, are missing. So I decided this is a good time to share how I assemble sobazushi 蕎麦寿司. This was an endng dish one evening.

Preparing kanpyou, dried shiitake mushroom, Japanese omelet, and spinach is described in the roll sushi post.

Preparing soba noodle: I used packaged dried soba noodle (#1). The first secret is to tie off one end with bucher's twine. I left enough length of the twine on one end after making a knot. I then cooked the noodles in boiling water but I kept the end of the twine outside the pan (#2) Be careful not to set the twine on fire, though. You could put the end of the twine in the water and later fish it out. I loosened the noodles as they became more pliable using a pair of cooking chopsticks. After the noodles are cooked, I pulled the end of the twine to lift them out of the water and washed it under cold running water but took care not to break the tied end (#3). After I aligned the noodle in one bundle (#4), I squeeze the extra moisture using paper towel. The second secret is to let it sit on the cutting board loosely covered with a plastic wrap for at least 30 minutes or 1 hour before rolling it. If you try to roll it immediately, the noodles have too much water on the surface and just fall apart.

After the noodles have rested and are slightly drier, I spread the noodles on a sheet of nori (#5). I first placed the bundle of noodles on the nori sheet with the tied end still intact. Once the noodles were in place, I cut the tied end (the noodles were still dry and uncooked in the very center of the tied end) and spread it evenly leaving about half an inch of nori sheet in the far end (#5). Like regular futomaki, I placed the omelet, kanpyou, shiitake mushroom and spinach near the edge of the nori sheet (#6). Using a sushi mat, I rolled it to make sure the end of nori sheet is over wrapping. At this point, I did not take off the sushi mat but just let it sit for 5-10 minutes before removing the sushi mat so that the moisture from the noodles made the ends of nori sheet adhere (#7) and the noodles did not fall apart. I cut off both ends of the roll for a snack for my wife and I (#8). 

After slicing the roll like a futomaki, I served the pieces with a side of vinegared "gari" ginger and a dab of real wasabi. I served a dipping sauce (diluted from the bottle of a noodle sauce) in a shallow bowl with a wide-opening instead of a regular soba noodle dipping bowl. So that you could dip the roll of soba more easily.

This is definitely much easier to eat than slurping the soba noodles; granted, slurping may be an important part of enjoying soba. The combination of all the different tastes in one mouthful is kind of nice. Is it worth the effort? Maybe on certain occasions.

Hamachi tartar with miso, parmesan cheese and walnuts ハマチのなめろう

I have posted namerou なめろう made from tuna sashimi. Here I made a similar dish with some additional twists using hamachi sashimi. 

Ingredients included; Hamachi sashimi, scallion, fresh mint, miso, grated ginger and garlic, toasted and chopped walnuts, and grated parmesan cheese.

These ingredients were chopped together (scallion, mint leaves, and walnuts were pre-chopped). The amount of the ingredients are all arbitrary. I came up with this primarily because we did not have perilla but we did have mint. Since I was using mint, I decided to introduce more Western ingriedients such as walnuts and parmesan cheese.

This is not bad at all but my wife felt that the grated garlic was too strong and dominated the taste. The walnuts (which must be toasted to fully enhance their flavor) gave it a nice textural contrast.  The mint was not too strong and parmesan cheese gave it a subtle overtone of cheese flavor. Over all, this qualified as a success (even with the garlic). Although, next time, I will definitely omit garlic. I often have the characteristic problem of continually adding other stuff to this type of dish. Even this time, I thought about putting in lemon zest, sesame oil, Yuzu-koshou, and/or Tabasco but I refrained--next time I may not be so conservative.

"Futomaki" roll sushi 太巻き

For the New Year's soup, I usually make mochi kinchaku 餅巾着 or square mochi encased in deep fried tofu pouch or abura-age 油揚げ and tie it off with kanpyou かんぴょう. Since I had extra kanpyou, I decided to make a rolled sushi or "futomaki" 太巻き. Futomaki is a fat roll as compared to "hosomaki" 細巻き which is a thin roll. Futomaki uses a whole sheet of nori instead of a half sheet used for hosomaki.

The regular futomaki roll uses only one whole sheet of nori which is rolled with the rice side in. The version I did here was shown to me by a sushi chef, Hajime はじめ, who worked at a long defunct Japanese restaurant "Mikado" in Tenley town which we frequented in the early years after we moved to DC. Hajime told me that when he makes futomaki in a sushi bar, he first makes an in-side-out roll or uramaki 裏巻き and then wraps it with an additional nori sheet. He said this makes the roll more substantial and sets it apart from homemade rolls. So, I am following his suggestion here.

What should be included in the center of futomaki rolls is debatable but the must-have items include an omelet, seasoned kanpyou and shiitake mushroom. Vinegared ginger is also a usual item and traditionally red ginger or beni-shouga 紅ショウガ is used but I used "gari" or the kind which is usually served at a sushi bar. Other items may include some kind of protein such as seasoned chikuwa 竹輪 fish cake strips or grilled anago 穴子. Many more modern variations exist including using cooked meat (either pork, beef, chicken, or even Spam - not junk email but Hormel's mystery meat which is called a "luncheon meat", obviously an euphemism, in Japan for some reason). There is pink (artificially dyed) and sweet (almost pure sugar) fish meat product called "sakura denbu"  さくらでんぶ, which may be also used (not by me for sure). For greens, I often used pickled cucumber (kasu zuke) but this time I used cooked baby spinach.

Kanpyou: Kanpyou comes dried (sometimes, dried and frozen). I washed it in running cold water. I then rubbed it with Kosher salt in my hands. After washing away the salt, I soaked it in cold water over night in the refrigerator (or several hours at room temperature). If I am going to use it to tie off something, which will be later be further cooked, I do not cook the kanpyou. For a sushi roll however, I simmered it in just enough water to cover with a lid on for 10-20 minutes and seasoned it with mirin and soy sauce. I simmered it until the liquid had almost completely evaporated (another 20 minutes) and let it cool down. I then wrung out the excess liquid.

Shiitake mushroom: You must use dried mushroom, which has more "umami" 旨味 than fresh ones. For sushi roll or scattered sushi or chirashi-zushi ちらし寿司, you need to use dried shiitake. Dried whole mushrooms need to be redydrated in cold water over night or warm water with a pinch of sugar for several hours. After removing the stem, I sliced it thinly. I cooked the sliced re-hydrated mushroom in the soaking liquid for 10-20 minutes and again seasoned it with mirin and soy sauce, simmered it to reduce the liquid to almost nothing, and let it cool. You could also get pre-sliced dried shiitake mushroom, which is a bit more convenient.

Japanese omelet: This is made exactly like a dashimaki だし巻き and then I cut into long strips appropriate for a sushi roll.

Ginger: I just used vinegared ginger root like you'll see ar a sushi bar. I just squeezed out the excess liquid and cut it into strips.

Spinach: I put baby spinach in a dry wok on medium heat with a lid. I turned the partially cooked spinach over a few times until it was completely wilted and seaseon it with salt. I let it cool and squeezed out the excess moisture.

After all these preps were done, I just arranged everythig on a plate (image below #1). I also arranged everything I needed to make a sushi roll, including the sushi vinegar (I could make it from rice vinegar but I ususally use bottled sushi vinegar), "hangiri" or wooden bowl to make sushi rice (#2 right upper corner), nori sheets and sushi mat (#2).

My wife made fresh rice perfectly (slightly dry) and I could use a good amount of sushi vinegar.  She also fanned the rice while I mixed in the vinegar. I let it stand for 5-10 minutes. I placed the nori sheet with a long axis vertically and spread it with sushi rice (3#). I moistened my hands with slightly vinegared water to prevent the rice from sticking to my hand.

I ususally use a moistened tea towel to make uramaki but, somehow, we could not find it this time. So I used a plastic wrap to cover the rice side (#4). After flipping it over, I placed all the ingredients on the edge closest to me (#5) and started rolling (#6) with the help of a sushi mat and plastic wrap.

As the rice surface was about to meet the nori sheet, I grabbed the edge of the plastic wrap and lifted it as I was rolling so that the wrap will not be rolled into the sushi roll (Below image #1). Now I have an inside-out roll wrapped in plastic wrap (below image #2). I removed the plastic wrap (below image #3) and place the roll on another nori sheet and rolled it to cover (image below #4).

Here is the end product with both ends already cut off (#5, the ends were a nice snack for my wife and I). With a sharp thin blade, moistened with vinegared water, I sliced the roll (above image #6).

I recruited my wife as a photographer but she complained that I did not pause at the crucial moments for her to take good pictures. In any case, this was a shime dish on a weekend evening. This combination of sushi rice, nori, shiitake, kanpyou and omelet is somehow very comforting and satisfying. I also made a lunch box from the left over for the next day.

Marinaded Hamachi Sashimi ハマチの漬け

Since we had a block of frozen hamachi (1.6 lb), I had to come up with some other ways (besides straight forward sashimi) of enjoying it. Marinated tuna sashimi or "zuke" 漬け is much more common than marinated hamachi but "hamachi no zuke" ハマチの漬け is a very interesting dish and the effect of marination is quite different from tuna.

Here I served hamachi zuke in a bed of baby arugula.

Marinade: This is very similar to one I use for tuna sashimi. I have made several variations of the marinade for tuna. This time, I made it a bit differently. I first put an equal amount of sake and mirin in a small sauce pan (about 3 tbs each) and let it boil so that the alcohol dissipated (no lid) and the mixture reduced to nearly half. I then added, a 1 inch square of kelp and soy sauce (2 tbs). When the mixture returned to a boil, I shut off the flame and let it cool down. Meanwhile, I dry roasted white sesame (2 tbs) in a dry frying pan until fragrant. I tipped it off into a Japanese mortar or suribachi すり鉢 and coarsely ground the sesame which I added to the marinade (leaving 1-2 tbs aside for garnish). I placed the marinade in the refrigerator to completely cool. 

I sliced the hamachi sashimi rather thinly (3-5 mm) and placed the pieces in the cold marinade for 1 hour in the refrigerator. The length of marination is up to you but I marinated the pieces for  beween 15 minutes to one hour. 

I removed the hamachi pieces and put them in a separate bowl preserving the marinade. I mixed in chopped scallion. I placed the marinated hamachi on the greens, garnished with crumbled seasoned nori ("ajitsuke nori" 味付け海苔 from a package), the roasted white sesame seeds which were previously set aside, and a dab of wasabi. I also served the marinade on the side side just in case.

Although I made the marinade a bit on the sweet side for my taste (probably too much reduction of the sake and mirin), it is mellow and nice. The texture of the hamachi became firmer and really looked like a piece of beef. The taste and texture are very nice but the effects of marination are different from those of tuna. We like this very much.

Hamachi Yellow tail and avocado sashimi ハマチとアボカドの刺身

Hamachi ハマチ or yellow tail amberjack is young buri ブリ. This is one of the fish which get promoted or "shusse-uo" 出世魚 as it grows up. There are somewhat different definitions and names according to the regions (Kantou 関東 such as in Tokyo vs. Kansai 関西 such as in Osaka) but a fully grown specimen is called "buri" 鰤 ぶり in either region. It is always difficult to find the exact English counter part to Japanese fish names. "Kampachi" カンパチ is another one belonging to the amberjack family and is a very popular sashimi item (most available here is farm raised in Hawaii. Actually, wild caught Kampachi is reportedly not suited to eat as sashimi because it is often infested with parasites). This fish may be different from Hamachi but I am not sure how similar or different taxonomically. (If this sounds confusing because it is.)  Kampachi appears to be less fatty but has a more delicate flavor. The majority of hamachi you see at sushi bars are also aqua cultured. In general, we are usually more interested in tuna and uni but this time, I got frozen sashimi block of hamachi from Catalina Offshore products.

Here is the hamachi sashimi I served with a "sashimi" avocado, Campari tomato with moromi miso もろみみそ and quickly made daikon namasu 大根なます(daikon in sweet vinegar). Wasabi is, as usual, real wasabi from the tube but this time, I had to perform a surgery (C-section) and take out the wasabi from the tube and mix the liquid and solid together to reconstitute (This is one of the problems of real wasabi in a tube--the water gets squeezed out but not the solids). It does have a nice smell and flavor very close to real grated wasabi rhizome, though.

　

Some times, Catalina does carry fresh hamachi but we have not tried it yet. This one was from Kyushu 九州, farm raised and flash frozen in minus 50C judging from what the package stated. It was treated with carbon monoxide (like a frozen tuna sashimi block) for retention of the color (it does not change the taste, is not preservative and is not harmful to your health). This package was rather large (long) and I had to soak it for several hours in the kitchen sink filled with cold water reinforced with ice cubes to thaw it. (They recommend using ice water rather than running water because, I suppose, the running water thaws the fish too quickly and unevenly). After it is thawed and out of the package the sashimi block looks like seen on the right below.

We really enjoyed this hamachi sashimi. It is as good or even a bit better than what we get in regular sushi bars (Many sushi bars also serve previously frozen hamachi). Since I did not have any other sashimi items, I also served sliced ripe avocado as a sashimi. You would be surprised at how well avocado slices go with wasabi and soy sauce. According to my wife, avocado served this way should be classified as fish.

Yuzu-koshou mayonnaise 柚子胡椒マヨネーズ

Yuzu-koshou 柚子胡椒 is one of the most useful and versatile Japanese condiment/seasonings. It is a mixture of salt, chopped  peel of a Japanese citrus called "yuzu" 柚子 and chili pepper (usually green chili pepper but it could also be red chili pepper). Chili peppers are called "koshou" in Kyushu Island 九州. In the rest of Japan, "koshou" usually means either ground black or white peppercorns and chili peppers are called "Tougarashi" 唐辛子. One could make this from scratch if yuzu is available but, yuzu, even if available, in the U.S. is too expensive to attempt this.

The next best thing is to buy ready-made yuzu-koshou in a tube as seen in the left. This will keep at least a few weeks or more in the refrigerator after opening. Yuzu-koshou is usually used as a seasoning or condiment for Nabe dishes, noodles in broth, and cold cubes of tofu but it could be used in any dish. I use it to season meat mixtures for hamburgers or Japanese "Tsukune" dishes.

Another way to use yuzu-koshou is as a dressing. The easiest combination is to mixed it with mayonnaise. Like wasabi-mayonnaise, you could add quite a bit of yuzu-koshou, since the mayonnaise dampens the heat. I usually make it with a ratio of almost 1:1 of mayo and yuzu-kosho but this is totally up to your taste. You could also add soy sauce in addition.

Here are two examples of how I used yuzu-koshou-mayonnaise.

The first one below is steamed haricot verts dressed in mayo-yuzu-koshou. This was served as a side for Paprika-cumin rubbed low-temperature (350F) baked pork tenderloin slices, homemade cranberry sauce, my wife's mushed potato seasoned with soy sauce and butter.

On another occasion, I served curry flavored chicken wing and drumet with steamed broccoli dressed in yuzu-koshou-mayo.

The mixture of yuzu flavor and spiciness really adds even to store-bought mayonnaise.

Hanpen fish cake dressed in wasabi sake lee ハンペンの山葵漬け和え

This may look like cubes of tofu but this is a type of fish cake called "hanpen" ハンペン. I posted a few items using this. This fish cake is made of white fish meat and egg white and looks snow white. In shizuoka 静岡, "kuro hanpen" or black hanpen is famous in which sardine meat is used and dark colored.  Instead of being deep fried, hanpen is usually steamed. As a result, it is soft and very mild in taste.

In the U.S., the best hanpen available is the "Kibun" 紀文 brand which comes frozen (see below).

I happened to have "Wasabi zuke" 山葵漬け which came in a plastic tab frozen (image below left). I am sure it is not as good as the ones available in Japan especially in Shizuoka 静岡 but this has to do in the U.S.. You could just add soy sauce and nibble it as you sip sake or use it as a condiments for cold tofu, "Chikuwa" 竹輪 fish cake or anything else. Since I found hanpen in our freezer (from the New Year's purchase I am sure), I decided to have this as a drinking snack. I first defrosted it in a microwave oven and then grilled it in a toaster oven to make it plump up and very slightly brown the surface. I cut the hanpen into small cubes (image below right). I then made a mixture of wasabi zuke and soy sauce and dressed the hanpen cubes.

My wife was surprise by the texture since she thought this was tofu. It is a bit spongy in texture but it has a nice gentle taste. The taste was enhanced by the wasabi zuke which has a slight sweetness from the sake lee with a tang from the wasabi plants (stalks and leaves). A simple and good starter dish in a home Izakaya.

Herring roe and cream cheese with wasabi 数の子クリームチーズ和え

Whenever we get herring roe or Kazunoko 数の子 for New Year, we have to finish it by the end of the first week of the year before it gets spoiled. Eating it just "as is" sometimes gets old so I tried to come up with different ways to serve kazunoko. Apparently other people think along similar lines as evidenced by this recipe.

The recipe calls for small cubes of kazunoko and cream cheese served on the bed of greens. For greens, I used baby spinach slightly sautéed (wilted) in butter and seasoned with salt and black pepper. I am not sure if the cream cheese (American invention) in Japan is different from the U.S. version--Philadelphia cream cheese, but my version was soft even straight from the cold refrigerator. As a result, I could not make neat cubes from it. I added a dab of real wasabi but did not add any soy sauce since the kazunoko had enough saltiness.

This is a nice small dish which goes well with sake. The combination of crunchy kazunoko and soft cream cheese gives a nice contras

Norio on wine and food cookbook 2011

We just received copies of NOWAF cookbook 2011 edition. This is the first time that one of the NOWAF cookbooks contains the posts of an entire year--2011 from Jan 1 to Dec 31.

If you are interested in browsing through, it is on the NOWAF cookbook section of this blog.

As we said before, having a hard cover copy in our hands feels more substantial than seeing it on the screen. In any case, thumbing through it brings back memories associated with the food and reminds us of some dishes we completely forgot. I am not sure how long I can keep this up. I may have to slow down or be more selective about what I post but as long as I can come up with another Izakaya dish, I will share it with you. Some people eat to live but how boring is that? I'd rather live to eat. 

Burdock root "gobou" three ways ごぼうの杣（そま）揚げ、チップス、きんぴら

For the New Year, I bought some burdock roots or gobou 牛蒡. One package contained two roots, which is a lot. So, after I used a portion for the New Year's dishes, I needed to finish up the remaining gobou. One evening I made these three gobou dishes.

Preparation of gobou is the same for all three dishes. The only difference is the shape of the pieces. I first halved the length of gobou since it is rather long and awkward to handle. Under running water, using the back of a vegetable cleaver or nakiri 菜切り包丁, I scraped off the dark skin. Depending on which dish I was making I cut the pieces differently but as soon as I cut the pieces, I soaked them in acidulated (with rice vinegar) water. Before using, I washed the pieces in cold water and dried them well using paper towels.

1. Soma-age 杣揚げ

The first one below is called "soma-age". "Soma" 杣 means wood or lumber cut from a mountain and the resemblance of this dish to the name-sake is rather obvious. I somehow remembered this dish from the depth of my memory (old drinking snack cook book*). It is like tempura but buckwheat flour or sobako そば粉 is used, which gives a nice crunchy texture and nutty flavor to this dish. It is a variation of gobou karaage 牛蒡の唐揚げ but it is different enough to warrant a different name.

I cut the gobou into 2 inch long pieces and then halved it lengthwise. I then placed the cut side down and sliced it rather thinly (2-3 mm or 1/5 inch) lengthwise. The central pieces were too wide so I cut them in half again lengthwise producing match sticks of gobou. After soaking them in acidulated water for 10 minutes, I washed them in fresh cold water, then patted them dry with paper towels.

Batter: I used  buckwheat flour (2-3 tbs) and a pinch of salt. I added enough cold water to make a rather thick batter.

Frying: I individually coated the gobou sticks and deep fried them in 340F peanut oil for one minute or until done and drained them over several layers of paper towels. 

This is best eaten while hot. The buckwheat crust and fried gobou are indeed a winning combination. We like this variation better than kara-age, although both are excellent Izakaya food.

*Later, I located this old cook book of drinking snacks by Shino Ikenami 池波志乃 called "Drinking snacks extraordinary" or 酒肴とびっきり and looked up the dish I made. It turns out I was actually, combining two of her recipes; one is tempura of "mountain" vegetables 山菜 using buckwheat flour batter and another is the original form of this dish; "gobou no soma-age" 牛蒡の杣揚げ, in which she used regular tempura batter. Although no new printing is being produced, surprisingly,  this book (used) is still available (It was published in 1983). 

２．gobou chips 牛蒡チップス

This is rather straight forward. I just sliced gobou on a slant rather thinly (paper thin). After soaking in acidulated water, I rinsed them and then patted them dry with paper towels. I simply deep fried the pieces for less than a minute in 320-330F peanut oil until brown and crispy turning once. While it was draining on the paper towel, I sprinkled on kosher salt.

This is like potato chips but gobou has a much more earthy nutty flavor. This fried up nicely and was not oily at all. It was nicely light and crunchy.

3 Stir fried "Kimpira" burdock root 金平牛蒡

This is by far the most popular preparation of gobou. It is a classic and still excellent. I have posted this before and will not repeat myself.

We had these three gobou dishes with California cab, Consentino 2005. This wine has a rather classic flavor profile of Califronia Cab in a good way. After tasting some austere Italian wines, we had to admit we like California reds like this one much better. This wine has a nice black and red fruit upfront with dark chocolate and vanilla with spices and moderate tannin.

Somehow this was a perfect wine with the gobou dishes. This red particularly went swimmingly with the "soma-age" burdock. Although I had to admit, these dishes will go well with beer or sake as well.

Steamed potato and pork tenderloin with pickled plum sauce ジャガイモと豚肉の梅が香蒸し

Whenever we cook pork tenderloin, we have trimmings left. From the trimmings, I make many other dishes such as gyoza, pork scallopini etc. I then saw this recipe in Asahi shinbun on line and decide to try it. This is potato and pork tenderloin in a pickled plum (or umeboshi 梅干) sauce which is steamed. This is in a category similar to our steamed lemon chicken with shiitake mushrooms. This is a rather healthy dish and it turned out to be very nice. This dish definitely will join in our teiban 定番 or regular dishes.

I made some modifications to the dish but they were not intentional; they just happened. Otherwise, I followed the recipe. The above is the final product and this will probably serve 4.

Pork tenderloin: These were the trimmings from 2 pork tenderloins. I did not weigh them but I estimate it was about 4-500 grams (about 1 lb). I sliced them into 1/3 inch medallions.

Potato: We used white potatoes (4 medium). Peeled and cut it in 1/3 inch wide batons like for French fries.  I soaked them in cold water to remove the excess starch on the surface and then dried them using a paper towel. I seasoned them with salt and coated with olive oil (2 tbs).

Plum sauce: I removed the meat from umeboshi or pickled plum (2) and minced it to make a paste. I mixed in soy sauce (2 tbs), mirin (1tbs), sake (1 tbs), sugar (2 tsp), dark sesame oil (2 tbs) and potato starch (2 tbs). I also added grated ginger (1/4 tsp) and grated garlic (1/2 tsp). The grated garlic was my addition, I thought I had grabbed a tube of ginger but discovered after I had put it in that it was garlic. Turns out that it added a very interesting dimension that really added to the dish. 

I placed the pork tenderloin from above and mixed and marinated it in the sauce for few minutes.

Assembly: I used a deep pasta dish and made alternate layers of the potato and the pork with potato layers on the bottom and top with two pork layers. 

I steamed it on medium high flame for about 30 minutes. At the last few minutes, I added haricot verts (we happened to have ones already steamed from the other night). I think any greens will do here.

We served portions as shown in the picture. This is a very good dish that could quickly enter the "comfort food" category. The pork is very tender and potato and the sauce which forms during the steaming goes so well together. The sauce has a subtle sourness from the pickled plum. My (inadvertent) addition of garlic was also good. The only problem we had was that the potato cooked a bit unevenly.

Tuna bowl 鉄火丼

"Tekka" 鉄火 in Japanese literally means "iron fire" describing red hot iron. When the red meat of tuna sashimi is used in a "maki" roll or "donburi" rice bowl dish, they are called "tekkamaki" 鉄火巻き and "tekkadon" 鉄火丼, respectively. Here, the red tuna sashimi is equated with red hot iron. One weekend, I made this as a lunch.

Again, this is not a recipe per se but just a description of how I assembled the dish. 

Tuna: From a pound block of tuna sashimi, I sliced red meat or 赤身 in relatively thin slices like one would use to make nigiri sushi. I smeared on a small amount of real wasabi exactly like I would do to make nigiri sushi.

Sushi rice: Since this was a lunch, I did not make fresh rice. I microwaved frozen rice in a silicon container and added sushi vinegar (from the bottle). After mixing, I put the lid back on the container and let it steep for a few minutes so that the sushi vinegar was nicely absorbed.

I placed the sushi rice in the bowls and placed the tuna sashimi (with wasabi smeared side down). Since I had a nicely ripe avocado, I sliced it and placed next to the tuna. I sprinkled soy sauce on the top and garnished with roasted white sesame and nori strips.

I also made miso soup with wakame, deep fried tofu pouch or abura-age 油揚げ, and scallions. This is a simplest form of this type of dish but very satisfying. A good lunch for any day.

Tuna "chiai" cake 鮪の血合いバーガー

The block of sashimi-grade tuna we got from Catalina Offshore products contained a dark red portion called "chiai" 血合い or blood line. This very dark meat is the least desirable part of the entire tuna. It has a strong gamy taste. Many sushi bars throw out this portion (or I imagine they may serve it to the employees) but, I have made two similar dishes using chiai, which were not bad. This time, I decide to make something totally different.

This was a starter dish. The amount of chiai from the one pound tuna block this time was not much. I could only make two small tuna patties or cakes.

Tuna chiai: I just chopped into small cubes.

I sautéed a shallot (one small, finely chopped) in light olive oil for few minutes. I placed it in a metal bowl to cool before I added the other ingredients which included finely chopped parsley (3 springs, finely chopped), ginger and garlic (grated 1/2 tsp each), store-bought mayonnaise (1 tbs) and panko bread crumbs (1 tbs).  I seasoned it with salt and pepper. I could have added more items such as lemon zest, hot pepper (either Tabasco or finely chopped jalapeño), but I restrained myself.

I made two equal sized patties and fried them in olive oil 2-3 minutes on both sides. I served it with mixed green and my salad dressing which is balsamic vinegar, mustard, olive oil and rice vinegar.

I was afraid that chiai may be too strong for this dish but the addition of a good amount of ginger and garlic really helped. This was a perfectly good use of scrap meat from the tuna block which would have been discarded in most circumstances. 

Sea urchin pasta パスタのうにクリームソース

This was a dish I've been wanting to make for some time but it felt like a bit of a sacrilege to use  good uni this way, so I did not make it until now. Catalina Offshore products sells four different kinds of uni; two kinds of live uni in a shell, California "premium" uni and "gold" uni with the gold uni being the best. I usually get the gold uni but this time, the only uni available was "premium". The difference between the "gold" and "premium" is the color and texture; the gold uni has a nice golden color with a firm texture and the premium is yellower with a softer consistency. Both taste pretty similar to us but there is about a 100% difference in price. They also sell frozen "vana" uni which appears suitable to use for a sauce but we have not tried this.

In any case, because the premium uni has a softer consistency, I thought this was best for this pasta dish. Since this is still an excellent uni, I made sure not to cook the uni in order to preserve its fresh oceanic flavor.

Uni: I used the entire 80 gram tray for two small portions of pasta (We were going decadent here). Leaving a few pieces for garnish, I put the rest in a metal bowl and stirred to break it up and added cream (about 2 tbs) and mixed them well but did not use a bender. Because of this, it still had some small bits and was not totally homogenized but that was OK by me.

Pasta: I used Angel-hair pasta which was cooked as per instruction on the box.

While the pasta was draining, I melted butter (1 tbs) in a frying pan on medium flame. When the butter melted I added the drained pasta to coat. After I cut the fire, I added the mixture of uni and cream and coated the pasta.

I garnished it with chopped chives and nori strips and more uni on the top. I served soy sauce on the side. This is a very rich and creamy pasta. Excellent! Next time, I may mix in soy sauce before serving. Although this is a pasta dish, we stuck to cold sake which went so well with the uni.

Julienne of Nagaimo with sea urchin 千切り長芋と雲丹

I just realized that my fellow Izakaya affectionado, Tobias at Izakaya Sanpo, has one recent post on October 2011 which I missed. It is about the Izakaya in Setagaya ward 世田谷区 called "Akaoni' 赤鬼, which is an imaginary red demon in Japanese folklore. One of the dishes he had and posted included this dish. Since I happened to have all the ingredients, I decided to make it.

I should have arranged everything more neatly but this is an Izakaya dish after all and I suppose rustic or not perfectly neat presentation is OK. The description of this dish and picture were enough to assemble this simple dish.

I just sliced and cut nagaimo 長芋 into small match sticks. I dressed with a small amount of sushi vinegar (from the bottle) and placed in the middle of the dish. I placed California gold uni with a small dab of real wasabi. On the three corners, I paced nori strips.

Before eating, we poured a small amount of soy sauce and mixed. This is certainly a good small dish. A perfect Izakaya affair which goes well with cold sake even with Daiginjou 大吟醸.

Tuna belly loin block and tuna fat dressed in sumiso マグロの脂の酢みそ和え

The below picture is an example of a small sashimi dish prepared using a tuna block from Catalina Offshore products. I already mentioned that they did not have blue fine tuna top loin for sometime and belly loin for a longer period. Finally, just in time for New Year, we could get belly loin. Nothing new here but just toro and aburi 炙り or seared toro. Only new item is small cubes of pure tuna fat dressed in sumiso 酢味噌 (in the center back in a small plate).

Before showing where this pure fat came from, here is how the 1 lb of blue fin tuna belly loin looks (#1). This cut has much more chiai or dark red portion as compared top loin. I divided the block into ootoro 大トロ (fattiest), chuutoro 中トロ (meidum fatty), akami 赤身 (red) and chiai 血合い (dark red) (#2 clock wise from the left back). The removed skin (#3) had a thin layer of pure fat. I removed the fat layer with a thin-bladed knife. I pondered what to do with it and came up with this dish; I cut up the fat into small cubes and dressed the pieces with sumiso dressing and chopped scallion.

Fattiest part (#4) often has thin layers of fat separating the meat. I used a kitchen torch and seared them (#5). We also got California gold uni which comes in a wooden pallet as seen here (#6).

You could make your own version of soy sauce for sashimi by adding sake and bonio flakes and heating it up (then strain and cool to room temperature), I just buy a small bottle of commercial "Sashimi Shoyu" 刺身醤油 (left). Since I could not get a fresh wasabi diakon 山葵大根 in time, I thawed real wasabi (right) in a tube, which has its own problem but is the next best.

The pure tuna fat dressed in sumiso was very good. The fat was rather firm but had a nice unctuous mouth feel and vinegar and miso cut its fattiness. Having only a small amount also helped to appreciate this dish better. As an added benefit, compared to pure fat from bone marrow, pork (lardo), or horse ("Koune" こうね), fish fat is supposedly good for you.