Pork and Vegetable Stew 豚と野菜の煮込み

Pork and Vegetable Stew 豚と野菜の煮込み (Mark's book Page 28)

This is from Mark's cook book (P28). This dish definitely resembles a very popular homey dish called "buta jiru" 豚汁; a Japanese soup containing various root vegetables and pork seasoned with miso. I remember this was one of the most common dishes we made when we had a school cookout picnic on the floodplain 河原 of a nearby river when I was in grade school. This was called "suiji ensoku" 炊事遠足. The cookout was a traditional event and was meant to be educational as well as fun. A group of pupils had to plan what to cook and buy ingredients within a given budget.  On the floodplain, we set up a fire and arranged large stones around it to make an outdoor cooking pit. We usually cooked a one-pot meal using a large cook pot. I do not remember whether we used a charcoal or wood fire. I just googled "suiji ensoku" (in Japanese)  and learned that it appears to be peculiar to Hokkaido (the northernmost island of Japan). That makes sense since I grew up in Sapporo, Hokkaido. It also appears this wonderful tradition is still carried out in Hokkaido.

Again, I have to start by saying, I deviated from the orginal recipe, not intentionally but by necessity. I usually have "konnyaku" コンニャク in our refrigerator and I did not even check before starting this dish. It turned out that I did not have regular konnyaku but had "shirataki" 白滝 which is a konnyaku made into thin noodles (the most common use of this is in "sukiyaki" すき焼き). So, I had to substitute konnyaku with shirataki.

The specific cut of the pork, pork belly, required in the recipe ("bara-niku" or "sanmai-niku" バラ肉、三枚肉), which is a very common cut in Japan, is difficult to get here in a regular grocery store (bacon and salt pork are made from pork belly. I think that salt pork can be used for this dish after soaking it in water and parboiling it but I have not tried it yet). you could buy fresh (not smoked and/or salted) pork belly from speciality butcher stores or over the internet (sometimes from the producers directly) but I have not tried it. I found that meaty pork spareribs, after removing the bones, comes very close to this cut which I used here. Otherwise I followed the recipe in Mark's book.

To briefly reiterate, cut pork (1/2 lb.), daikon (1 lb.), carrot (1 medium) in 1/2 inch cubes. Boil the pork cubes in water (starting from cold water) for 10-15 minutes skimming the scum which floats on the surface, then, rinse the pork in running water. Cook 1 pkg of shirataki in boiling water for 5 minutes and rinse in running water. Combine all the ingredients and cover them with "konbu" or kelp broth (about 1 qt or liter). Add 1 crushed garlic clove, 2tbs soy sauce and 1tbs sugar. Cook for several hours until all all ingredients are soft. Just before serving,  dissolve yellow miso (2-3 tbs) for the desired saltiness. To dissolve the miso paste, I use a Japanese contraption called "misokoshi" 味噌濾し, but you can use a small strainer and a spoon. Garnish with chopped scallion and Japanese seven flavored hot pepper (Sichimi Tougarashi).

We like this very comforting dish. The original "buta jiru" is also equally good but this one is a bit more refined and the pork melts in the mouth. But, my wife said that this dish cries out for potatoes. Next day, I added cubed potatoes, more parboiled pork, and additional Kelp broth to the leftover soup (before adding miso) and cooked another 30 minutes or so and finished with miso. It tasted much better with a nice texture and added sweetness from the potatoes. Now I said, I should have added onions! I think we are converting this dish to the more classic "buta juru"!

Mountain yam on nori sheet 長いもの磯辺焼き

We like Asakusa 浅草 in Tokyo. For some years, when we visited Japan, we stayed in Asakusa. About 20 some years ago, we visited a small Izakaya located on the 3rd or 4th floor of a small, unassuming building in Asakusa. There were many drinking places in this building but each floor was small--just large enough to house one establishment. We saw the sign for this place while we were walking along the street and knew nothing about it but we decided to go in. The Izakaya had a small U-shaped counter for about 10 customers and two tables in a tatami floor area ("koagari" 小上がり) which seated another 10. This was run by a husband and wife team; the husband cooked behind the counter and the wife was in charge of serving the tables and counter. Two of the dishes we had there stuck in our memory; deep fried grated mountain yam wrapped in nori sheet 山芋の磯辺揚げ and fresh boiled fava beans or "sora-mame" そら豆.

The chef husband made the deep fried dish by using two chopsticks to make a small cylinder of the grated mountain yam. He then wrapped the cylinder with nori and deftly deep fried it. It puffed up and had a nice crunchy shell and soft inside. It was wonderful and had the flavor and crunch of crispy nori.

Unfortunately, real mountain yam "yama-imo" is difficult to get here in the U.S. Instead, we get cultivated ones called "naga-imo" (left image, from Hokkaiodo Shinbun Web site 10/28/2009). Although both have similar taste and texture (slimy!), they are quite different when grated. Yama-imo is much more viscous or firm than naga-imo and holds its shape. Nago-imo, in contrast is much more watery and doesn't hold its shape. For these reasons it is not possible to deep fry grated nago-imo the way the chef husband did at the Izakaya--it won't hold the shape of a cylinder and just runs out of the nori casing.  So I just spread the runny grated naga-imo on a small rectangle of nori sheet, and slip it, nori side down, into a frying pan filled with just a bit more oil than I would use for sauteing. When the edge becomes brown, it is cooked enough to hold its shape and I turn it over once. I fry it until it is nicely golden brown. I serve the pieces hot with soy sauce or salt. This version is not as good as the original but it is close and a perfect sake accompaniment.

Fillet Mignon salad carpaccio style 牛肉のたたきサラダ

I make several versions of this dish. Most of the time, this is "leftovers control" and is made using leftover fillet mignon from the night before since we usually cannot finish the portion sold as "one" fillet. I cook the fillet medium rare. Next day, I cut the left over steak into thin slices. I sometimes marinate the slices in Ponzu sauce with grated garlic and ginger or in a mixture of sushi vinegar and soy sauce (in equal amounts) for 5 minutes. I then make a salad with the marinated pieces. Here, instead of marinating the meat, I drizzled, extra-virgin olive oil, good quality Balsamic vinegar, and soy sauce over the meat like I was making carpaccio. I arranged the steak on a bed of baby spinach and topped it with chopped scallion, freshly ground black pepper, and added a small dab of grated ginger. You can use any vegetable such as sliced onion, thinly sliced cucumber, watercress, arugula etc or just meat without vegetables. You could, of course, make this from scratch. In that case, it is called "beef tataki" 牛肉のたたき.

"Tataki" in Japanese cooking parlance could mean two totally different cooking methods; one is to sear or grill only the surface of sashimi-grade fish or beef and serve it like "sashimi", bonito or "katsuo" 鰹  tataki is the most famous of this type of cooking, another is to chop sashimi-grade fish, such as horse mackerel or "aji" 鯵, into small pieces often with the addition of seasoning (this is similar to steak tartar).  For beef tataki, I just sear the steak and keep the center rare. I slice it thin and marinated it in Ponzu sauce for 5-10 minutes.  Garnish with diakon spout or scallion and serve at room temperature.

This version I made today goes well with either red wine (a hardy Australian Shiraz such as d'Arenberg "Dead Arm" 06  is good for this dish) or cold sake. If you use Ponzu sauce, it tends to be too acidic for wine and sake may be better.

Braised crunchy cauliflower モンパルナスのカリフラワー炒め

This is a very simple and healthy dish that goes very well with sake or wine. I first encountered this recipe in a Japanese cook book entitled "men's drinking snacks" 俺の肴 which was given to me by my high school classmate 20 some years ago. This recipe was by a famous Japanese painter/artist, late Taro Okamoto 岡本太郎. According to him, while he was living in Montparnasse, Paris, his Chinese friend, who was a good cook, used to make this dish as an hors d'oeuvre and he loved it. I have been making this for some time but I deviated slightly from the original recipe by adding red pepper flakes and substituting rice vinegar for regular white vinegar, added towards the end of cooking.

Break a whole head of cauliflower into small floweretts.  Heat 2-3 tbs of peanut or vegetable oil in a wok, add red pepper flakes (as much as you like) and chopped garlic (I use 3-4 cloves but use your discretion). Briefly saute until fragrant but do not brown. Add the cauliflower and saute on high heat for 1-2 minutes. Add half a cup of chicken broth and put on a tight lid. Cook (steam) for 5 minutes or until cauliflower is cooked but still crunchy (it will keep cooking after it is removed from the flame). Add 1-2 tbs of rice vinegar and stir. Add salt to taste and remove from the heat. There should be only a small amount of liquid left on the bottom of the wok.

You could serve this hot or warm but it is best the next day. The combination of crunch, hot pepper, garlic and subtle vinegar taste all work together. Quoting from Taro Okamoto, "Once you taste this dish, you can not eat over-cooked limp cauliflower in a restaurant."

Soba noodle in hot broth かけそば

This is again is a dish with which to finish your home Izakaya feast. This is a very simple soba noodle dish. We had this when I made "age-dashi tofu". This was a perfect dish to make since I wanted to finish the broth I made for the tofu dish. I simply dilute it further to the strength appropriate for this soba dish. Soba そば 蕎麦 is very popular even here in the U.S. and it is easy to get high-quality dried noodles. Of course you can make the noodles yourself. We have a soba cook book which describes how to make soba from buckwheat flour. I tried it once but, it is too difficult to make for an amateur like me and the dried variety is just fine. 

There are two major ways to serve Soba; cold soba with a dipping sauce or "mori soba" もりそば and warm soba in broth or "kake soba" かけそば. There are many variations of both types of soba preparation depending on the condiments or toppings. For example, if you add tempura (usually shrimp), it is "tempura soba", if you add an egg  it is "Tsukimi soba" 月見そば meaning moon-gazing soba since the egg yolk looks like a full moon. If you add seasoned fried tofu pouch (abura-age), then it is called "fox" soba きつねそば. You may ask why this is called "fox" soba. "Inari" shrine 稲荷神社, one of the many Japanese shrines, considers the white fox as a messenger of the deity or god it enshrines. Later, probably through misunderstanding, people started believing that the fox was the deity itself. It is also believed that the fox deity loves "abura-age" or deep fried tofu pouch. Thus, any dish which includes "abura-age" has "kitusne (fox)" or "inari" somewhere in it's name. Another common soba topping is "tenkasu" 天かす or small bits of cooked tempura batter that you scoop up while you are making tempura (this can be stored frozen for later use), then, it is called "tanuki" soba たぬきそば. There is a play on words here. "Tanuki" is a Japanese badger or more like a raccoon which is always compared to "kitsune" or fox since both animals are believed to use "magic" (mostly transmogrification) to mislead humans in Japanese folklore. It is said that "kitsune" is always very cunning and successful in her magic but "tanuki" is always comical and failing in his magic. For the name of the noodle dish, "ta-nuki" also means just temprura batter without other ingredients of tempura  - "ta" means "other" and "nuki" means "missing" or "without".

We occasionally go to a small but elegant Japanese restaurant called "Makoto"  in Washington DC, where they serves an excellent course menu おまかせ in the "kaiseki" style 懐石 or 会席. After 7-8 small exquisite dishes, the last dish they offer is soba in warm broth. There are some choices of toppings and we always go for "sansai" 山菜 or mountain vegetables. The soba dish I made here is a simplified version of this. I just put sliced fresh shiitake mushrooms in the broth and cooked it for a few minutes. I poured the hot broth over cooked soba noodles in a bowl and finished with chopped scallion and nori. If you like, sprinkle on the Japanese 7 flavored red pepper "sichimi tougarashi"  七味唐辛子.

Spaghetti with cod roe たらこスパゲティ

The night after making "julienned potato with spicy cod roe", we decided to make this classic Japanese pasta dish. Reportedly, it was invented in a small pasta restaurant called "hole in the wall" or 壁の穴 in Shibuya, Tokyo around 1967. (Now this restaurant has expanded into a company running multiple Italian and noodle restaurants). The original recipe was supposedly made with softened butter and lemon juice mixed with cod roe.  This was placed in the bottom of a pasta plate. Hot pasta was mixed in and finished with a garnish of nori. This dish appears to have started an entire genre of Japanases-style pastas 和風パスタ. This dish has become a favorite home cooking dish and many variations have developed. I am not sure how we came up with our own variation but I have a feeling that caramelized onion may have been my wife's idea.

My wife does not particularly care for spaghetti, which I suspect, is possibly due to the childhood "trauma" of eating canned spaghetti which many children face in the U.S. So instead of spaghetti, we use udon noodles (dried thin variety such as "sanuki" 讃岐 or "inaniwa" 稲庭) which has a nice firm texture. For us, we need only two small servings (as a last starch dish). So, we use one serving or bundle of dried udon noodles (cooked as per the package instruction) and one large sac of cod roe or tarako. After removing the roe from the sac, I mix in a small amount of lemon juice and sake to make it a smoother consistency. Meanwhile, in olive oil, I saute and caramelize one small onion cut into thin strips (this may take 10-15 minutes). I do not add salt since the tarako can be salty. I add the cooked noodles to the onions and continue sauteing to warm up the noodles. I then add the tarako mixture and remove from the heat. Mix well so that all the noodles are coated with tarako which turns white from the heat of the noodles. Taste and if needed, add salt. Plate, and garnish with thin strips of nori, perilla, and freshly cracked back pepper. Squeeze lemon on the pasta just before serving.

Julienned potatoes with spicy cod roe ジャガイモの明太子和え

Julienned potatoes with spicy cod roe ジャガイモの明太子和え (Mark's book p24)

We have to agree with Mark that this dish is excellent and definitely joined our list of favorites. I have to admit first that I deviated a little from the original recipe but it tasted very very good. I should have made the dish, at least once, according to the original recipe before modifying it. First, we did not have the spicy cod roe or "karashi-mentaiko" 辛子明太子 and we had all other kinds of potatoes except Russet. Substituting for the spicy cod roe, after removing the roe from it's sac, I added Tabasco and a bit of sake to make regular "tarako" たらこ cod roe spicy and the right consistency. For my wife, the spicy cod roe is too spicy and this way, I can control the spiciness. Instead of Russet, I used a large red potato which has less starch than Russet. For the rest, I followed the recipe. To reiterate, thinly julienne the potato and soak it in water to remove excess starch, drain and pat dry. Saute in small amount of oil in a hot frying pan for 2 minutes or so without browning until softened but still bit crunchy. Serve on a plate, top it with a pat of butter and the spiced-up cod roe. Add freshly cracked black pepper. Mix and enjoy.

This is somewhat reminiscent of a classic Japanese pasta dish, "Tarako spaghetti" たらこスパゲッティ. We often make a variation of this spaghetti dish.  In the current dish, potatoes are used instead of noodles. The potato strips are al dente but have a different texture as compared with noodles. The mixture of tarako, spiciness from, in my case, tabasco and cracked black pepper, and butter is wonderful. As in tarako spaghetti, it is natural to think adding julienned nori and perilla to this.