Grilled yellow tail collar ハマチのカマの塩焼き

The portion of the fish just caudal to the gills (i.e. just behind--toward the tail from the gills) of a medium to large size fish is called “Kama*” かま in Japanese or “collar” in English. This portion is often discarded by Western fish mongers but it can be one of the best parts of the fish to eat especially in the case of yellowtail or “hamachi” collar ハマチのカマ which is probably the most popular. We tried “Tuna” collar in Japan some time ago. It was listed as “whale” collar 鯨のカマ on the menu as a reference to its size not the species of fish from which it came. It was gigantic! It felt like we were served the Japanese equivalent of a Thanksgiving turkey large enough to feed a family of 4 with all the leftovers. We think, however, that Hamachi is much better. We often order hamachi kama at Tako Grill when it is available.

The other day, we happened to find frozen hamachi collar in our Japanese grocery store and bought one without hesitation. This was a large one. I just salted it and grilled it over a charcoal fire in the Weber despite the risk of mosquitos.

*”Kama” in Japanese means “sickle” or “sythe” obviously derived from the shape of this particular part of the fish (see the bottom picture).
I served this with the usual grated daikon 大根おろし. Since I did not have pickled young ginger or “hajikami ginger” はじかみ生姜 which is a standard accompaniment for grilled fish in Japan, I put a small mound of “gari” がりpickled ginger.

The picture just above is after the kama has been thawed and salted and is ready to go. Since I did not want to tend the fish too often at the grill which increases my chance of becoming dinner for mosquitos while I prepare my own dinner, I set up my Weber grill for 1/2 direct heat and 1/2 indirect heat. I first placed the hamachi kama skin side down over the direct heat for five minutes until the skin developed several nice char marks. I then turned it over still on the direct fire and left it to grill for another 5 minutes. I then moved the fish to the indirect heat area and continued cooking for another 5 minutes.

This was perfectly done. It was a rather meaty, good sized hamachi kama with a good amount of nice succulent meat. It served as a perfect appetizer for two. As usual, my wife skillfully removed the meat and skin for the two of us. We had our usual cold sake “Mu” with this.

Since we generally don’t barbeque over a charcoal fire in the summer once the mosquitoes have emerged, this barbeque was a somewhat rare occasion. But, is there any better way to cook yellow tail kama for peak enjoyment? When it comes to grilled yellow tail kama, the risk of being “eaten alive” by the mosquitoes is worth it. Nonetheless we were also practical and to make good use of the fire we also grilled a butterflied leg of lamb for the entrée.

Chicken skin crackling 雛皮のクッラクリング

Cracklings must be one of the most popular bar snacks in the U.S., especially in the South. Cracklings may not be any worse than eating a bag of potato chips or a serving of French fries but it certainly is not a "healthy" snack. It is, after all, pork rinds (skin) deep fried (in lard) and heavily salted. It appears cracklings are catching on in Japan as well. "クラックリング".  There is a corresponding Japanese word phonetically translated from English. When I made yakitori recently, I removed the skin from 6 thighs. I did not think there was enough space in the toaster oven to grill the skin. I decided to make chicken "crackling" instead. It was quite crunchy and probably not as bad as genuine deep fried pork cracklings but very good.

I first boiled the skin in water with a dash of sake. I skimmed off any oil or scum that came to the surface as it boiled. I cooked it for 10 minutes trying to render as much of the fat as possible. I then washed the skins in cold running water and patted dry between paper towels. I then put the skin in a dry non-stick frying pan on medium-low flame (shown below).

Only a small amount of fat came out but I blotted it with a paper towel and cooked both sides until they were brown and crispy (10 minutes total). I salted it and served it with a wedge of lemon. We really like this preparation. We ate it with our fingers breaking it into small bite sized pieces and really enjoyed it. Hopefully the pre-boiling significantly reduced the amount of fat.

In addition to the chicken cracklings we had squid "okizuke" 沖漬け which was store bought, came frozen in a small plastic pouch. This is not as salty or "gamy" as fermented squid and guts or "shiokara" 塩辛 or 酒盗.

With this type of small snacks, the only libation we could have was cold sake.

Grilled skewered octopus 鮹（の串）焼き

One of the Izakaya blogs I am following had a description and picture of what they referred to as“Takoyaki” たこ焼き. But it was not the famous Osaka snack of a small grilled dumpling containing a small  piece of octopus that would usually come to mind when you hear the name “Takoyaki”. This particular  "takoyaki" is quite different and appears to be chunks octopus leg (“Butsugiri” ぶつ切り) which is skewered, grilled and served with soy sauce and wasabi. I happened to have a cooked (boiled) octopus leg and decided to imitate this “takoyaki”, although I have never tasted or seen it before and this may not be the way they prepared this dish.



I thinly sliced the thickest potion as “sashimi” (left in the above picture) and cut the rest into sizable chunks. I skewered them (I prepared two skewers) and grilled them in the toaster oven on broil for about 5 minutes turning once. As you can see some of the edges got slightly charred. Besides soy sauce, I also made “Karashi sumiso” からし酢味噌 from “saikyou miso” 西京味噌.

The sashimi was very tender and excellent.  As to "takoyaki”, we are not sure. Grilling made it a bit more chewy and warm but appeared not to add anything more. We prefer just simple “Butsugiri” seasoned with “karashi sumiso” but we need to visit this place called “Akita-ya” 秋田屋 in Hamamatsu-chou 浜松町 in Tokyo and try this before passing on the final opinion.

New Japanese-style plate 新しいお皿

One of our favorite places to visit in Tokyo is Kappabashi 合羽橋. We really enjoy wandering in the seemingly endless array of shops dedicated to cookware. While there is much we see and we would love to add to our collection there is only a limited amount of luggage space to accommodate our indulgences. As a result most of our Japanese-style plates and bowls come from the local pottery club’s annual sale or by mail (Internet) order; the company we use most often is Korin 光琳. So on our recent trip to New York, we were delighted to find a Kappabashi type neighborhood and a store that specialized in Chinese/Japanese style dishes. Our quest took us to the edge of Chinatown along Bowery street. While there were many stores specializing in restaurant-related items, there was nothing on the level of Kappabashi. We didn't let that stop us; we bought a few items and, luckily, we had them shipped home. One of our purchases is shown below.

I really like collecting interesting dishes because having that perfect vessel to display and present food adds so much to the overall enjoyment of the eating experience; first feasting through sight then smell and taste. I saw this type of plate somewhere before and wanted to have one for some time. One side is curved and has a square well and the other side is flat with a slightly raised rim. Although I did not make anything special, I decided to serve some small dishes using this newly acquired plate.

On the left is black vinegar/soy sauce simmered chicken thigh and daikon (half each) served with blanched broccoli and a dab of Japanese hot mustard. On the right is small piece of salmon briefly marinated (I used noodle sauce from the bottle) and grilled in the toaster oven. I sprinkled "sansho" powder.

I think this is a neat plate. I have to come up with the combination of small drinking snacks appropriate for this vessel.

Japanese-style succotash 枝豆ととうもろこしのバター醤油ソテー

This was second dish I made from the leftover soy beans or edamame (hulled and frozen in a microwavable pouch). I saw the original recipe on line but this is very similar to the American summer favorite succotash except for the use of soy bean instead of Lima beans and soy sauce for seasoning. The combination of butter and soy sauce is almost fail-safe and add the flavor of sweet corn, it is extremely good.



Corn: I got four ears of fresh corn. As per my wife's method, after removing the husks and silk, I placed them on a plate covered loosely with paper towels and microwaved them for 4 minutes, turned them over and microwaved for additional 2 minutes. (Of course you could boil the corn or use frozen.) My wife removed the kernels of the cooked corns for me.

Edamame: I used frozen, hulled soy beans in a microwavable pouch but fresh or frozen soy beans in pods can be also used (even better, I am sure) after cooking and removing the soy beans from the pods. The amount is arbitrary but I could have used more for the amount of corn I had.

I can think of adding other items such as finely diced tomatoes, shallot, Jalapeño pepper, red pepper etc but I made this with just corn and soy beans. I just sautéed the soy bean and corn mixture in large frying pan with butter (1 tbs) until all the vegetables are coated and warm. I then added soy sauce from the edge of the pan (so that soy sauce will be heated up quickly and become fragrant before mixing into the vegetables.) I added soy sauce in several increments as I tasted.

As we were preparing this, both my wife and I were snacking on them and without further seasoning these were good. The corn was very sweet. The addition of butter and soy sauce made it even better. This could be a drinking snack or a side dish. I served this with corn-meal crusted chicken tender loins on the top (which I did not take pictures).

Cold tofu with upripe soybean puree 豆腐の枝豆ソース

The other day, when my wife made chow chow pickles, she used soy beans "edamame" 枝豆 instead of lima beans. Actually she prefers to use young soy beans instead of lima beans when the recipe calls for lima beans. She says that the texture and taste of the soybeans is not a starchy as lima beams. Since we had a leftover pouch of frozen shelled soybeans, I decided to use it up by making two dishes. This is the first one I made. This recipe came from "Otsumami Doujou" おつまみ道場 (in Japanese).



As usual, I did not precisely measure the ingredients but the original recipe (2 servings) calls for;

Edamame: 25grams (boiled, shelled and cooled or in my case, frozen shelled edamame in a microwavable pouch).

Seasonings: White miso (1/2 tbs, I used "saikyou" miso 西京味噌), Cream (1 tsp, I used more), Dashi broth (1 tbs, I used concentrated "white dashi" 白だし from a bottle, about 1 tsp)

I first put all the ingredients in a small food processor and whirred them until they attained a saucy consistency. I did this by adding a bit more cream as needed. The skin of the soybeans did not homogenize completely. So I moved the contents to a Japanese mortal or "suribachi" すり鉢 and tried to make it smoother but it didn’t seem to make a big difference. So the sauce was not as smooth as I had hoped. I tasted it, it had a nice salty nutty flavor from the miso. Since this sauce would be mixed into tofu, I thought the saltiness was just right. You can always "add" more miso or salt to make it saltier to your liking. The ratio of tofu to sauce needed to be taken into account as well. In my case, I was going to serve this with a rather small cube of silken tofu (i.e. more sauce than the original recipe) so I did not add any more miso.

I put this sauce over the cube of cold silken tofu. We mixed well with the tofu before eating but how you eat this is up to you. You could eat it with spoonful of tofu and sauce on the top as well. The cream adds a richness and the miso adds a nutty, slightly sweet and salty flavor. Perfect dish for summer days.

Perilla pesto 青じそのペスト

Aojiso 青じそ or perilla is like mint, it re-seeds itself proliferating out of control. As you can see below, the perilla in our garden is no exception. Please note the way it terraced its growth this year so “everybody” got the maximum of the available sun. The basil (barely visible in the left back corner of the perilla patch) was being choked out. So my wife decided to harvest the tall "trees" of perilla surrounding the basil.



My task was to make something from the large amount of harvested perilla leaves and I decided to make "pesto". Yes I know, it is usually the basil that gets made into pesto but in an effort to rescue the basil the perilla became the prime ingredient….somewhat ironic isn’t it? By-the-way this picture was taken after my wife’s harvest which despite its large yield made hardly a dent in the total crop.

After making the pesto, we first used it on top of buttered potatoes . This was quite good.



I also made pasta with the perilla pesto. Instead of spaghetti, I used thin Japanese Udon noodles. I cooked them as per the instructions on the package. I washed the noodles in cold running water. I warmed them up just before serving by soaking them in boiling water. I then drained them, and mixed in the "Aojiso" perilla pesto and garnished it with a mound of thinly julienned perilla.

Here is how I made the pesto. It is the same recipe I would use to make pesto from basil—I just replaced the basil leaves with perilla.

Perilla leaves and olive oil: My wife removed the leaves from the stems, washed, and dried (first using a salad spinner and then spreading on a dish towel, #3). The picture only shows a small part of the crop and, at the end, we had about 400 grams of perilla leaves (that is a lot!). I put the leaves in several small batches in the food processor. I streamed in enough extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) so that the leaves were all chopped up and a "pesto" consistency was reached (#4). I ended up using close to 750ml of EVOO (the entire bottle I opened).

Pine nuts and garlic: I used closed to 100grams of pine nuts and 6 cloves of garlic (about 30grams, skin removed and root end trimmed). I first dry roasted the pine nuts in a frying pan until the surface was very slightly browned. I placed the pine nuts and the garlic in the food processor and made a paste also adding a small amount of EVOO.

I then combined the ground-up perilla leaves EVOO mixture and the paste of pine nuts together in a large metal bowl (#5).

Parmigiano regianno cheese: I grated a wedge of P-R using a cheese grater (I used about 60grams) and mixed it in (#6). I seasoned it with Kosher salt in multiple increments as I tasted it (you can always add more later but you cannot take it back).

This pesto is very unique. The addition of olive oil, pine nuts and parmegiano cheese resulted in a taste quite different from what I would have expected from just ground up perilla. You could tell it is not basil but unless you are told you probably would not guess perilla. It has the nice fresh taste from the perilla and the other ingredients give it a complex taste dimension that is very nice and unexpected.

Using it as a topping for hot boiled potatoes (the second picture) was very good especially with the addition of butter and a bit more salt. The pasta of Japanese Udon (the third picture) was also excellent. We needed to add a bit more salt to the pesto for this dish, but addition of fresh perilla leaves as garnish made it clear that this was perilla pesto. The taste was as good as basil pesto.

We ended up with a large amount of the perilla pesto. I put a portion of the pesto in Ziploc sandwich bags, flattened them by removing as much air as possible. I then placed these in a larger Ziploc bag in layers and put it in the freezer. We had at lease 10-12 sandwich bags. Hopefully we will take it out during the winter to remember the summer bounty of our perilla…but we still have a lot of perilla left in the garden. We’ll be making pesto to last a decade.

Potato with "Okizuke" squid ジャガイモのイカの沖漬けのせ

The most popular way to eat boiled or baked potato in Hokkaido 北海道 (and elsewhere for that matter) is with butter and salt (or soy sauce) ("Jagabata" ジャガバタ). Another popular way is to eat it with salted and fermented squid and guts or "shiokara" 塩辛. "Okizuke" 沖漬け is similar but it has no "innards" and is not fermented or too salty (marinated in soy sauce and mirin). I happened to have frozen squid "Okizuke" in a small plastic pouch in our freezer. So, one evening, I microwaved a small potato, removed the skin and served it with squid "okizuke".

Just to be sure the taste profile was elegant enough, I also added a thin pat of butter and a splash of soy sauce. This is a great combination. Salty, sweet and cold firm squid okizuke mixed with warm, soft, and buttery potato makes a wonderful symphony of textures and taste in the mouth. I could have used more potato. For this kind of small dish, the only thing you can choose to drink with it is sake.

Daikon and Pork filet with sweet miso sauce 大根と豚のヒレ肉の田楽風

This is mostly to show the small trapezoid-shaped bowels (one of the new bowls) we acquired in New York.  I did not have the time or energy to make anything special. I had some small daikon rounds which were leftover from making "katsuramuki" 桂剝き for the daikon Sashimi garnish  (center portion cannot be used for this). I prepared this dish rather than discarding the leftover rounds. I also found baked pork filet in the refrigerator. I decided to make sweet miso sauce and grill them in the style of "dengaku" 田楽.



Miso sauce: I used white miso (2tbs) with enough mirin to make saucy consistency. I tasted it and added 1 tsp of sugar.

I first warmed up the daikon rounds (this was previously simmered in dashi broth) and thickly cut slices of the baked pork filet in microwave oven. I then smeared the miso sauce on one side and placed just under the upper broiling unit of the toaster oven and broiled it until the miso sauce browned and became fragrant. I added blanched broccoli and sprinkled with micro grated lemon zest.

The bowls are a nice small size. I have many round ones (deep and shallow) and square ones but this one has an interesting shape. Grilled sweet miso is wonderful stuff. The dish was more than Ok for a sip of sake.

Nattou tempura 納豆の天ぷら

Mr. Segawa 瀬川 of our Izakaya substitute "Tako Grill" has had a special "Izakaya menu" for some time. We have been enjoying items from this special menu. Occasionally, he adds more items to this menu or offers one-time only special items. One evening, he offered us "nattou tempura". We really liked it and I reproduced it here. I have seen other recipes for "nattou tempura" but this one is a very good one indeed.

Close up showing delicate and crunchy crust.

Nattou: I used one package of "hikiwari nattou" 挽き割り納豆 which was previously frozen. As usual, I added chopped scallion with mustard, and seasoning liquid came with the package of nattou. I mixed it well with my nattou stirrer (Left upper on the image below)
Perilla: Now we have our own perilla ("aojizo" 青じそ or "ooba" 大葉) growing in our herb garden, it is easy to get six good sized leaves. I washed and patted dry with a paper towel. I placed one teaspoonful of nattou in the middle (Upper right in the image below). I folded it in half. Since nattou is sticky it will remain folded (lower left in the image below).
Tempura batter: I simply used cake flour and cold Seltzer water to make rather thin tempura batter.
I coated the folded perilla leaves containing the nattou in the tempura batter and deep fried it in 170F vegetable oil for 3-4 minutes turning once (lower right in the picture below).

This was very good. My wife (she who in general does not like nattou)  liked it as well. The smell of nattou and the slimy/sticky texture were much reduced. I served this with a wedge of lemon and green tea salt. For this, definitely cold sake is called for.

Pennsylvania Dutch pickled watermelon rind ペンシルバニアダッチ西瓜の皮のピクルス

One day, my wife asked me to get a watermelon. I brought one back from the grocery store and it sat on the counter for a few days. As I was getting ready to cut it up, my wife informed me that she wanted the watermelon for its rind not the fruit! She was going to make Pennsylvania Dutch watermelon pickles. .
As I have mentioned before my wife grew up in the Pennsylvania Dutch area of Pennsylvania so Pennsylvania Dutch food was part of her childhood.  She claimed that this type of pickle was served everywhere including school lunches. So, to my surprise, my task was to remove the outermost hard green skin and leave just the white of the rind and maybe a little of the pink from the fruit. (My wife told me that there is controversy about whether or not to leave any red of the fruit. We decided to leave the red.) It was not as easy as you think to remove just the green skin from the rind of a watermelon, but I used a technique similar to skinning the filet of fish.
After consulting  a few Pennsylvania Dutch cook books, she decided on one of the recipes from a 30 year old cookbook called “Pennsylvania Dutch People’s Cookbook”.

I served her watermelon rind pickles with chicken salad (made from chicken hot smoked in the Weber). I served the pickles with watermelon and corn and black bean salad using the new plate/bowl combination we acquired on our recent visit to New York.

My wife took over from here.
Watermelon Rind: 2 pounds of prepared rind with dark green skin removed. Dissolve 1/2 cup of salt in 2 quarts of water. Add the rind to the brine, cover and let stand overnight. (First picture below). Next day drain off the salt water. Put the rind in a sauce pan and cover with fresh water. Cook until the rind is just tender when pierced with a fork. Take off heat and let stand for several hours. Drain thoroughly.

Pickling syrup: 1 tsp. whole allspice, 1 tsp. whole cloves, 1/4 tsp. mustard seed, 1 stick cinnamon, 1 cup rice or sushi vinegar, 2/3 cup water, 1 cup sugar

Put all the syrup ingredients in sauce pan (the recipe calls for putting the spices into a cheesecloth. I just add them loose to the pan). Boil the vinegar spice mixture uncovered stirring occasionally for 5 minutes. Then add the drained rind and cook gently until the rind becomes transparent. (picture below).

My wife did not can the pickles but used them as “refrigerator” pickles so when they cooled she put them in a plastic container in the refrigerator.

They are a very sweet pickle with a strong flavor of the spices. They have a very pleasing soft but not mushy texture. My wife told me you either love or hate these pickles. I fall into the latter category and she falls into the former. I just found the flavor too strong—I found the flavor of cloves overwhelming. In contrast, she reveled in the strong sweet flavor. She said it reminded her of her childhood. She asked me what I would like to have changed. I suggested not so sweet and less spices. She replied that then they would not be watermelon pickles.
My wife pointed out that the recipe called for the spices to be removed after the pickles were cooked. She chose to leave the spices in the syrup. The longer they are in the syrup the more intense the flavor becomes. As a compromise my wife made a second batch but this time immediately  removed the cloves. She also used regular rice vinegar rather than sushi vinegar (the regular rice vinegar does not have the sugar the sushi vinegar has). I found these pickles much more tolerable. So should you decide to make these pickles, keep in mind you can adjust the intensity of their flavor by how long the spices remain in the syrup.
As a comparison, my wife found the commercial watermelon rind pickles (picture above). I was amazed you could get a commercial product. Although it looks very similar and texture is the same as my wife's, there is no comparison. The commercial one is just sweet and sour without any taste of spices.
Meanwhile my wife has been looking up other recipes for watermelon pickles on the internet. She found several using different combinations of spices…I’m afraid we will be seeing more of this.

Nattou omelet 納豆オムレツ

For some time, I have wanted to make “nattou” omelet 納豆オムレツ but, somehow, I did not have a chance to make it. I was also a bit hesitant thinking my wife might not like it since it is after all “nattou”. I am sure people may have a different recipes but I went for the simplest one I could find. I just prepared the nattou, mixed in eggs and cooked it. The picture shows one serving.



I prepared the nattou (this happened to be “hikiwari nattou” 引き割り納豆 from Hokkaido.) in the usual fashion with mustard, chopped scallion and the seasoning liquid that came with the nattou package. Using my special nattou stirrer, I mixed well to reduce the smell of nattou (#1 below). I mixed in two eggs and beat it well. I seasoned the egg mixture with a little bit of sugar and salt.

I put a small amount of vegetable oil in my non-stick square frying pan on medium-low flame. When the pan and oil were hot, I poured the egg mixture in all at once (#2). As the bottom started to set, I gradually started rolling but to make sure the egg mixture did not flow back. I had to pull back the half rolled omelet so the uncooked egg mixture spread out and came in contact with the bottom of the pan. Then I just continued rolling until everything incorporated in the roll (#3). The roll had come together quite well so I did not need to further shape it (#4). I sliced it into 6 equal portions and served 3 per serving.

This was  a "mikey likes it" moment. This might not have been my wife's favorite but she said she liked it. Cooked nattou is less sticky and appears to be more palatable to my wife's Western palate. Encouraged by this, I may make more "cooked" nattou dishes!

Pork and mushroom stuffed small sweet peppers スイートペッパーの豚肉詰め

This is a dish I made to finish up the mini-sweet peppers we got. Since I was preparing pork fillets which always produce some scraps, I decided to stuff the peppers with the ground pork.

Here is the the end result. Since I made too much meat stuffing, I made two small meatballs and served it with my marinara sauce.

All the amount is arbitrary and I did not measure anything.

Pork stuffing: I made a meat stuffing from ground (hand chopped) pork, finely chopped fresh shiitake mushrooms, and finely chopped shallot. I seasoned it with salt and pepper and mixed well.

Sweet pepper: I first blackened the surface of the peppers by grilling over a direct gas flame until the skin got blackened and blistered all over. I placed it immediately in a china bowl using a plate as a lid so that it steamed in it's own residual heat. I repeated this for 4 peppers. After 10-15 minutes, I removed the skin using a combination of rubbing with knife and peeling with fingers. This was not easy. I then removed a side from the pepper and removed the veins and seeds.

I stuffed all 4 peppers and made two small meatballs with the remaining stuffing as seen below.

This time I sliced smoked (low moisture) mozzarella cheese and used it to cover the meat stuffing. For good measure, I also placed a small square of cheese on the top of the meatball. I baked this in the toaster oven pre-heated to 370F for 20 minutes (below).

Obviously this is the combination is one that cannot go wrong. If I had more leftover marinara sauce, I would have put on more but this is a very good snack to have with the red wine we were drinking.

Momokawa sake "Silver" and "Diamond" アメリカ醸造桃川酒 シルバーとダイアモンド

Last time I posted US brewed sake, I mentioned two: "Momokawa" sake, "Diamond" and "Sliver" by SakeOne. When new batches of Momokawa sake come out, I taste them since they are different every year. Based on the most recent tasting of Momokawa I decided that the "Silver" was too austere and dry (even a bit bitter) and the "Diamond" was too cloyingly sweet. It does have a nice slightly viscous mouth feel, however, and nice fruity and "umami" flavors. I liked the new brew especially "Diamond" and wished it was not so sweet. This gave me the idea of mixing the two sakes to see if I could make a meritage I liked.

I made two different mixtures; the one on the left is one part Silver to one part Diamond. The one on the right is one part silver and two parts Diamond.

We liked the one-to-one mixture best. It is not as sweet as a straight "Diamond" but has enough added flavors from the “Diamond” to offset some of the austerity of the “Silver”. The end result was quite palatable. We’ll probably be using this combination again in the future.

Cheese stuffed small sweet peppers スイートペッパーのチーズ詰め焼き

We found a bag of colorful small long sweet peppers in our grocery store. They were very colorful with yellow, orange and red. We deiced to get one to see what we could make from it. We used some of them in asazuke 浅漬け and fried rice (thinly sliced or finely chopped), which added a nice sweet pepper taste to the dishes. We have seen cheese stuffed Jalapeño peppers recipes before. We even saw a special chili grill for the purpose of grilling stuffed jalapeno. Instead of Jalapeño pepper, which would probably be too hot for us, I decided to make a similar dish using these min-sweet peppers.



Since we do not have a chili grill, I decide to stuff the peppers from the side. I removed the roof of the peppers and removed the seeds and veins as you see below. It is not clear from the picture but I used crumpled aluminum foil so that I could place the peppers securely and horizontally.



For the stuffing, I used two cheeses; spicy harvati, which has chopped red hot peppers in it, and applewood smoked cheddar cheese. I made small dices of both cheeses and mixed with finely chopped shallot and cilantro. I also added a small amount of potato starch and mixed them all up. I stuffed the cavity of the sweet peppers (left in the picture below) and then topped it with a slice of gruyere cheese (right in the picture below).

I baked the stuffed peppers in my toaster oven preheated to 375F (convection mode) for 15-20 minutes or until the cheeses melted and brown spots started appearing (below).

I waited for a few minutes until the cheese solidified a bit before serving. This can not go wrong. Essentially you are eating grilled cheese with the nice flavor of sweet peppers, shallot and cilantro. It is a perfect drinking snack for any drink. The skin of the peppers bothered my wife and I saw her removing it before eating. Next time I may have to remove the skin of the peppers.

Live sea urchin 殻付き生ウニ

When we order sashimi items from Catalina, we like to order several items together so the shipping charges aren’t more than the value of the item being shipped. The best combination for us is “Gold Uni sea urchin” and fresh “Blue fine tuna toro” 本マグロのとろ. Sometimes this combination is difficult to achieve--one item may be available but the other is not. This time, they had the fresh tuna; both “akami”　赤身 or “loin” and “toro” of blue fine tuna. The only sea urchin available, however, was “live” whole sea urchins. I just couldn’t pass up the combination of tuna so I decided to go ahead with the live sea urchins as well.

I am not particularly fond of opening and retrieving sea urchin roe from the live animal but, in this case, I was on a mission to round out the shipment of tuna so I did not think I had a choice. Besides, I thought, I could blog this. So here it goes. The picture below is the amount of roe I extracted from one live sea urchin which is a generous serving for one. We got two live sea urchin which made two servings for us.

 

My wife likes the combination of sea urchin and nori so I also served thin nori strips on the side. The the sea urchin roe were excellent. They can’t be any fresher than this (the spines were still slowly moving even after I opened it up).

The roe, however, are hard won—this is messy work. The box arrived on an extremely hot day. The ice packs in which the shipment were packed were partially thawed so the interior of the box was wet with condensation moisture. The sea urchin were in a plastic bag but the spines had poked through the bag during shipment. Liquid from the sea urchins had seeped out of the holes made by the spines and combined with the condensation moisture. Sea urchin goop was all over everything including the packages of toro. Some of the spines were even embedded in the interior of Styrofoam outer case. Some clean-up was required.

There are many ways of retrieving roe from live sea urchin. Video instruction at Catalina suggest using two spoons to crack the sea urchin in half. I used the method I am most familiar with and perhaps the method most Japanese will use. To avoid having the spines and shell fragments going into the garbage disposal, I placed the sea urchin in a large metal bowl with the bottom side (where the mouth opening is located) facing up (#1 below). While holding the sea urchin using metal tongs, I cut across the bottom with a pair of sharp kitchen scissors (#2 below). After the bottom has opened up, using either forceps or long bamboo chopsticks (the latter was what I used), I removed some of the black entrails revealing the bright yellow roe (#3 below). Using the chopsticks and a long narrow spoon, I removed the roe carefully. I put them in a bowl of salted water. I removed any black stuff still attached to the roe using chopsticks and rinsed the roe in new clear salted water again (#4 below) Some roe were small and it was not possible to avoid fragmenting some of the pieces.

I do not think this is for everybody. You could loose your appetite during these processes but the end result was great fresh sea urchin roe. We savored the bounty of our labor while sipping cold sake. The blue fin tuna was also excellent. This was the best toro we have had in recent memory and even the loin meat was not “akami” but a nice “chu-toro”.

Molded or pressed "steak" sushi ステーキの押し寿司

The last time I made pressed sushi or "oshizushi" 押し寿司, I warned that my wife was interested in making oshizushi that represented “outside-the-box” thinking. It took a long time but here is one of those attempts. My wife came up with the idea and I executed it. I used leftover flat iron steak to make this “meat” sushi.


We are not sure we liked this. I may have to work on the different variations. In addition to steak,

I also layered perilla leaves and a thin omelet made from 4 egg yolks. Only reason I made this rather deadly but bright yellow omelet was because my wife made quick bread which required egg whites making 4 left over yolks (see picture below).
Rice: I made sushi rice using sushi vinegar from the bottle.
Steak: I thinly sliced medium rare flat iron steaks. I marinated this in a mixture of grated garlic and soy sauce for a few hours. On hindsight, this may have made the taste of the meat too strong.
Omelet: I just scrambled the 4 left over egg yolks, seasoned with a bit of sugar and salt. Using my square frying pan on a very low flame and with a lid, I cooked it slowly for 5 minutes until the surface was dry.

Using the mold for oshizushi, I first put in a few layers of steak slices (marinade squeezed out), then perilla leaves, followed by the omelet cut to fit the mold. I added the sushi rice and pressed it firmly.  After cutting it to small pieces, I garnished it with white roasted sesame seeds and a side of pickled ginger.

This is certainly edible but we did not particularly care for it. The meat seemed to over power the subtle flavor of the vinegared rice. Maybe I should not marinate the steak. I suggested we could make this type of sushi with “luncheon meat” (Japanese euphemism for “Spam” the magic pork product from Hormel) but that was immediately voted down.

Indian-style lamb stew インド風ラムシチュー

My wife really likes lamb and recently developed an interest in Indian-style cooking with lots of spices and flavors but not too much heat (spicy hot). This dish combines her favorites. This is, for sure, much more interesting than a regular "curry".

This recipe also came from "Easy and quick Indian cooking" but, as usual, my wife made some variations based on available ingredients. So it varies slightly from the original recipe. I was sous chef for this dish and did all the chopping and preparing.

The ingredients:
Lamb, I bought about 3 and 1/2 lb of lamb shoulder (bone in). After removing the bones and fat, the final amount was about 2 1/2 lb. I cut it into a large bite size (1-2 inches chunks).
2 onions chopped
2 tsp. ground ginger
1 tsp ground garlic
3 tsp water
1 1/2 tsp ground cardamon
2 bay leaves
1/4 tsp ground cloves
10 peppercorns
1 tsp cinnamon
1tsp coriander
2 tsp ground cumin
4 tsp smoked paprika
1/4 tsp cayenne
1 1/4 salt
1/4 tsp garam masala
7 tbs plain yogurt (thick greek style)
1 1/2 cup chicken broth
1/4 garam masala

The first step was to make a paste out of the ginger, garlic and water. We chose not to brown the meat (because it doesn’t seem to really make a difference that we can taste), so I made the sauce and then added the meat. The cardamon, bay leaves cloves, peppercorn and cinnamon went into the hot oil and cooked a few seconds until they were fragrant. Then I added the onion and cooked until it became medium brown. Next came the ginger/garlic paste which I cooked for a few seconds. Then the coriander, cumin, paprika, cayenne and salt. While on low heat I stirred in the yogurt one tbs at a time. When the sauce was all nicely blended I added the lamb cubes and water. I put on the lid and simmered for about a hour until the meat was tender. Before serving I was supposed to sprinkle on the garam masala (I forgot to do this.)


This dish was fun to make. I really enjoyed the smell as all the spices bloomed in the oil and gave off their fragrance. I had always thought the yogurt could not be used in cooking because it would “break” so it opens new vistas to be able to use it. (The secret seems to be to add it slowly over low heat). I really like the somewhat tart flavor it adds. For this recipe I might reduce the amount of chicken broth.

The meat really cooked down and the sauce was a bit watery. The flavor however was wonderful. Lots of flavor with only a hint of heat. (That is another thing I like about this cooking; I can control the amount of heat a keep it at a comfortable level). The meat was fork tender.

Burdock root salad 牛蒡のサラダ

Whenever I buy “gobou”, two long roots are in one package and I need to make several dishes before I can finish it. I almost always make “kinpira”  きんぴらごぼう and make several other. Since my wife made “coleslaw” and there was leftover dressing, I made this gobou salad. It is similar to the previous post but I changed the way the gobou was cut and had the slight difference in the dressing.
I made a small serving with a half of a tomato, skinned and peeled (or blanched, shocked and the skin peeled) arranged in a rose-shape with some watercress.

This time, I only added carrots.

Gobou: After scraping off the skin under running water using the back of my knife. I shaved the gobou as though I was sharpening a pencil (I do not know how many younger people today actually sharpen pencils with a knife) in  small elongated pieces shaped like leaves of small bamboo or “sasa”. This way of cutting  is called “sasa-gaki” 笹掻き (here is the visual aid at You Tube) and most often used for gobou. After I cut the gobou in “sasagaki”, I soaked the pieces in water acidulated with rice vinegar for 10 minutes or so I then drained and washed them in running cold water. I cooked the pieces in boiling salted water for 20 minutes (I checked occasionally but this gobou was rather hard and required a long time to cook). I drained and soaked the pieces in cold water for 2-3 minutes and drained.

Carrot: I peeled and prepared the carrot in the same way as the gobou. I cooked the carrot  for 5 minutes and drained.

Dressing: This was leftover from making coleslaw. Essentially, it is half and half mixture of mayonnaise and plain yogurt (water drained or use Greek yogurt), seasoned with sushi vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper.

Even after 20 minutes of cooking, this gobou was a bit fibrous. The slightly bitter fresh taste of water cress was a nice contrast.

“Mughlai” Chicken 鶏肉のインド風クリームソース

This is the second Indian-inspired dish my wife made called “Mughlai” chicken. This is a very flavorful dish with lots of spices but not hot. Although it has good amount of cream, use of yogurt makes it less deadly while keeping the sauce very rich. I was sous chef and did the prepping of the chicken and chopping of vegetables. My wife follow the recipe from Madhur Jaffrey’s “Indian Cooking” cook book. The recipe is similar to one by  Nigela Lawson which  is available on-line.

Ingredients:

Chicken: Both recipes are a bit vague about what parts and kind of chicken. We used chicken thigh, skin off, bone out, and cut into two pieces. We used a total of 6 thighs (12 pieces, about 3 lb or 1 kg).

Ginger, I inch cube, peeled and coarsely chopped (we cheated and used ground ginger from a tube).

Garlic, The receipt calls for 8-9 cloves but we cut this down but again used ground garlic from a tube.

Almond, 6 tps, sliced. We used whole almond toasted and sliced.

Cardamom pods, 10, lightly bruised

Cinnamon stick, one

Bay leaves, two

Cloves, 5

Cumin, ground, 2 tsp

Cayenne pepper, 1/8 tsp

Plain yogurt, 7 tbs

Light cream, 10oz

Salt, 1 1/2 tsp

Raisin, 2 tbs (the original recipe called for golden raison but we used regular raison.)

Garam masala, 1/4 tsp

Onion, 2 medium, finely chopped

Vegetable oil, 7 tbs

1. Make a paste of almond (4 tbs), garlic, ginger, and water (starting from 4 tbs) in a small electric blender. We needed to add more water to make it a paste.

2. Brown the chicken:in oil in a large skillet in all sides in two batches. Set them aside.

3. In the same pot, add the cardamom pods, cinnamon stick and bay leaves in the same oil and fry until fragrant. The original recipe does not instruct to remove these items (only mentioned that they were not meant to be eaten). So as not to accidently crack a tooth however, we removed these including black seed spilling out from the  cardamom pods using a fine meshed square skimmer.

4. We added the onion and sautéed it for 3-4 minutes. We then added the almond paste, cayenne pepper and cumin and sautéed for few minutes.

5. We started adding the yogurt one tables spoon at a time until all were incorporated.

6.We added the cream, salt, and the chicken pieces including the liquid accumulated.

7. We simmered it for 20 minutes on low flame with a lid on. We turned over the chicken pieces and added the raisons (see below) and simmered for another 10 minutes.

8. We served this over rice with toasted and sliced almond as a garnish (The first picture).

This is a very nice dish. It has a very complex flavor. Since we did not put too much cayenne pepper, it is not too hot. The mixture of yogurt and cream made the sauce very rich (hopefully better than just cream). This dish reheated well in the microwave oven.

Fish cake and green beans "Isobe" fry ちくわとインゲンの磯辺揚げ

I made this dish to try out the new plates we recently acquired in New York. This white square plate with rim is very versatile. My only complaint is that it does not seem to have been made to stack—when stacked on atop the other the top plates slide off making it difficult to store. I realized that I had defrosted "chikuwa" 竹輪 fish cake the previous day but did not use it. I decided to make tried-and true "Isobe" 磯辺 fry. I also made green beans in the same  fashion.



Chikuwa: I cut it in half crosswise and then cut the halves into 4 pieces lengthwise to make 8 small batons.

Green beans: I trimmed both ends and cut in half to make the length equal to the chikuwa pieces.

Tempura batter: Just a mixture of cake flour and cold Seltzer water plus dried "aonori" 青海苔 sea weed. I made this a thin, runny batter.

I deep fried in 170F oil until done (the chikuwa 1-2 minutes, the green beans 3 minutes).

These two items were quite good. The green beans got so "etherial" like the dried green beans. The chikuwa developed good slightly chewy texture. Both had nice crisp  light crust with "seashore" flavors from the "aonori". I served this with my usual green tea salt.

Chickpeas cooked in tea 紅茶ひよこ豆

This is another one of my wife Indian-style cooking but we served this as a drinking snack and it worked very well. Of course, this can be a side dish (vegetarian) for dinner. Again this is from “Quick and Easy Indian cooking”.


Ingredients:
Chickpeas, canned x2, 19oz cans, drained
Vegetable oil, 1/4 cup
Cumin seeds, 1 tsp
Onion, x1 medium, finely chopped
Garlic, 2 cloves, finely chopped
Whole plum tomatoes, canned, x1 16oz, drained and coarsely chopped
2 Tsp grated ginger
1/14 cups prepared black tea (earl grey)
Jalapeno pepper, 2 medium size, seeded and de-veined, cut into thin slices
1tsp salt
2 tsp. ground cumin seeds
1 tsp garam marsala
4 tbs. cilantro chopped
1 tsp. fresh lemon juice


Following the instructions I drained and rinsed the chickpeas. I put oil in a frying pan and added the cumin seeds and let them bloom for a few seconds. Then I added the onion and cooked until the edges turned brown. I added the garlic and tomatoes and cooked until they became a bit carmelized. Next came the chickpeas and the remaining ingredients. I simmered for about 10 minutes.

I initially made this dish because I was curious about how the tea and chickpea combination would taste. As it turns out the tea is simply to color the chickpeas and didn’t seem to add any particular flavor. Since I removed the veins and seeds from the pepper, this was not too hot but if you like it hot, do not remove the veins and seeds. For us this has a nice slow heat which is perfect. 

This was a very good savory dish that just got better with time as all the flavors melded together. It almost had the feel of a comfort food. This will go with any drink.

Grilled squid with "Tsume" sauce イカのたれ焼き

Although this was not real “Tsume” sauce つめだれ, I had the sauce left when I cooked a whole Vermilion snapper which contained a lot of “umami” and protein from the fish. This was first used to make a simmered tofu or “Niyakko” 煮奴 by diluting with dashi broth. After this, I reduced it and adding more soy sauce and mirin and used it for yakitori. This sauce was finally used to make this grilled squid. This is very similar to other squid dish I posted but this time I grilled it using the toaster oven and the sauce was a bit better.

These are rather small squid. I made shallow crisscross cuts. I dried the surface with a paper towel and placed them in the broiler about one inch from the upper heating elements. After 6-7 minutes I turned them over and cooked the other side for another 5 minutes. When the squid was almost fully cooked, I brushed on the sauce and let it grill for 1 minute on both sides brushing the sauce on the other side as well.

This was remarkably tender squid and the sauce was pretty good. I served it with a wedge of lemon on a bed of water cress.