Spinach with creamy black sesame sauce ほうれん草のごま和え

Spinach with creamy black sesame sauce ほうれん草のごま和え(Based on Mark's book p76)

Spinatch with mustard soy sauce ほうれん草の芥子醤油

In general, fruits and vegetables are much tastier and better in Japan with few exceptions. These exceptions include carrots and spinach. Carrots available in the U.S. are thinner, longer and much sweeter especially when eaten raw. Western varietals of spinach are tender and good for eating as a salad especially "baby" spinach.  Although Western varietals of carrot and spinach are now available in Japan, traditional Japanese spinach is rather tough and not suited to eating raw as salad and contain a high amount of oxalic acid. I still remember that my mother told me when I was a child that spinach had to be boiled in a large amount of water and then soaked in cold water to remove as much oxalic acid as possible. I am not sure common Western varietals have a significantly lower oxalic acid content, however. It is getting difficult to find bunches of fully grown spinach in our grocery stores. Instead, I often end up with pre-washed and packaged "baby" spinach. I think that, for traditional Japanese ways of preparing spinach like seen here, it  may be better with bunches of Japanese or Asian spinach since Western spinach does not have a same texture.

I prepared two rather common sauces to serve with spinach. One to the left is with black sesame sauce as described in Mark's book p76. One to the right is dressed with a mustard soy sauce or "karashi jouyu" 芥子醤油 and topped with dried bonito flakes. I cooked the whole bag of baby spinach (which yielded only two servings) in a small amount of water in a sauté pan with a tight-fitting lid for 2 minutes or until the spinach wilted. I drained and let it cool. I squeezed out any extra moisture and rolled it using a Nori sheet in a long cylindrical shape like making a roll sushi. I left it wrapped in plastic wrap until the Nori absorbed the moisture and adhered to the spinach (few minutes). I then cut the the roll into 1/2 inch pieces yielding 8 pieces.

1. For the black sesame sauce, I followed the recipe in Mark's book. I toasted 1 tbs of black sesame seeds in a dry frying pan and put them in "suribachi" すり鉢 and ground them until they became pasty. I added 1 tbs of "neri kuro-goma" 練り黒ごま (this can be bought at a Japanese grocery store) or black tahini. I deviated from the recipe and did not add any sugar but instead added mirin and soy sauce (2 tbs each). Since I did not have "dashi" broth handy to dilute the sauce to the desired consistency, I used mirin which added liquidity as well as sweetness without the dashi broth.

2. For the mustard soysauce, I put 1/2 tsp of a prepared Japanese mustard (sold in a tube, this is hot, not like Western mustards), 1/2 tsp of sugar and 3 tsp or more of soysauce in "suribachi" and mixed well.

Both are good, although we really liked the black sesame sauce. Toasting the sesame seeds really brings out the nice fresh fragrant flavor of sesame. Black sesame paste adds a nice nuttiness. I had to find "adult" (as opposed to "baby") spinach for this dish, though.

Tatsuta fried chicken 鶏の竜田揚げ (Mark's book p54)

This is one of "teiban" 定番 or regular dish in Izakaya. I used to make this dish often (when we were young and reckless) but I have not made it for some time. My wife used to call this dish "Japanese chicken McNugget" but it is much better than McNugget (actually, no comparison). Two teiban fried chicken dishes in Izakaya are "kara-age" 唐揚げ and this dish. For Kara-age, no prior marinading is used or it may be just garlic flavored. "Tatsuta-age" uses a soy sauce based marinade. In either dish, the chicken pieces are deep fried after being dredged in flour (wheat, potato and rice flours with many establishments using proprietary mixes to attain the ultimate crispy coating). The name "tatsuta" is said to come from "Tatsuta" river or "Tatsuta-gawa" 竜田川 where Japanese maples or "momiji" 紅葉 (actually, "momiji" literally means "red leaves") are famous because of their brilliant red color in autumn. It is said that the color of the marinated, deep fried chicken resembles the red maple leaves along the "Tatsuta" river (that is poetic but requires lots of imagination, I think).

The recipe in the Mark's book (p54) is interesting, since the chicken is first macerated in salt and sake and then dressed in soy sauce just before it was dredged in flour and deep fried. I will try that in the near future but, here, I used my more traditional recipe. I bone, clean and cut up chicken thigh into bite size pieces across the grain of the meat. I then marinate the chicken in a Ziploc bag containing sake, mirin, and soy sauce (1:1:2 ratio) and 1/2 tsp of grated ginger (optional) for at least 30 minutes to several hours or even overnight. (For shorter marinating time, increase soy sauce in the marinade.) I lift the chicken pieces from the marinade, pat dry with paper towels, dredge in potato flour or "katakuri-ko" 片栗粉 and deep fry. I actually use a "shallow" frying method as you see below. I use the amount of oil (peanut oil) to the depth of 1/2 inch so it comes to half the thickness of the chicken pieces. The oil temperature should be about 350F but I use the bamboo-chop-stick-dipped-in-oil method of judging the oil temperature. The shallow frying will all moisture to escape more easily from the chicken pieces (since half is exposed to air) and produce a crispier outer layer besides using less oil. (I learned this technique from a chicken "kara-age" recipe in a cook book by Kentaro Kobayashi, which lists many small dishes that go with drinks). I fry for 3-5 minutes and toward the end, crank up the heat a bit to make the surface crispy (cut to test for doneness). I drain the chicken of excess oil on a metal grate before serving. I serve this dish on a folded tempura "shikishi" paper 天ぷら敷き紙, but it is obviously not necessary if you do not have one.

 You only need lemon wedges, or not even that, since the chicken pieces are already seasoned. We try not to make and eat too much deep fried food but this one is really good especially since we have not had this for some times.

Last time we were in Kyoto, we had chicken Kara-age at "Tori-hachi" 鳥八 (A specialized chicken dish drinking place but not "yakitori"-ya) near Kyoto station. They have two large vats of oil on induction cookers with electronic thermal sensors to maintain the high and low temperatures and they use a double frying method to produce an excellent "kara-age". 

Hanger steak ハンガーステーキ

We do not eat lots of beef. We eat more pork and chicken. When we eat beef, often, we will go for filet mignon. If we are going to have Fajitas, we go for a "skirt" steak. We often noticed when you go to other countries, cuts of the meat especially beef is quite different. Hanger steak is one of these cuts which have been more popular outside the U.S.. More recently, even here in the U.S., it is getting much more popular becase it is very tasty, although it is not one of the tender cuts of beef. The day, I got  a whole red snapper, I also saw hanger steaks in the butcher section of our gourmet grocery store and I could not resist getting one small steak. When we eat beef we do not eat that much. We often prepare it in a manner suitable for an Izakaya dish or as an accompaniment for a drink. I often serve beef sliced so that you can eat it with a pair of chopsticks. 

This is not a recipe per se. Often, I make a simple soy sauce brown butter sauce for steaks (I learned this sauce from a small but elegant Japanese course menu restaurant "Makoto"). Tonight, I cooked a hanger steak (seasoned with salt and pepper) in a frying pan, without finishing in an oven as I usually do for filet mignon, to cook it medium rare. I let it rest on a plate covered with aluminum foil. Since we had an already open bottle of left-over red dust Shiraz from Australia, I decided to make a red wine sauce with shallots.  While the meat was resting, I added 1 large shallot cut in thin rings and sauted using the remaining fat from cooking the steak for 3-4 minutes until it got soft and slightly brown and brown bits (fond) come off from the bottom of the pan. I deglazed the pan with 2-3 tsp of red wine vinegar and let it evaporate to almost dry. I then added 1/4 cup (or whatever was left in the bottle) of red wine and the meat juice accumulated in the plate on which the steak was resting. I reduced it to a small amont just enough to cover the bottom of the frying pan (5 or so more minutes on a high flame). I finished the sauce with 2-3 thin pats (1 tbs or less) of unsalted and cold butter, tasted and adjusted the seasoning with salt and pepper if needed (not needed here). I then sliced the hanger steak into thin strips across the grain of the steak. I topped the steak with the shallots and the wine sauce. This steak was so flavorful that you do not have to eat that much to enjoy the beef. We definitely needed to open a better wine. Crauford Maroon Vineyard Tattoo Cabernet Sauvignon 2005 went so well with this steak.

Foil-baked mushroom しめじのフォイル焼き

Foil-baked mushrooms しめじのフォイル焼き (Mark's book p28)

I came across a package of fresh "shimeji" mushrooms at our Japanese grocery store and decided to make this dish. I almost cooked this in an oven rather than directly on the stove top as instructed but I restrained myself and followed the recipe and it worked well. This is a very easy and excellent way to prepare "shimeji" mushrooms しめじ茸. I have tasted "enoki" mushrooms えのき茸 made in a similar manner (less cooking time required) at a "Robatayaki" 炉端焼き restaurant in San Francisco a long time ago.

To reiterate the recipe from Mark's book p28, trim the root end of the shimeji mushrooms (The entire bunch is connected at the root end), salt and put it in aluminum foil shaped into a box (I used double layers since the recipe calls for it to be put it directly on a low flame). I added two small slivers of lemon zest (using a peeler), thin pats of unsalted butter (total of 1 tbs), sealed the top by double folding. I placed it on a direct low flame and let it cook for 15 minutes. I added a splash of soy sauce just before serving.

I ended up transferring the mushroom to a small bowl to make two individual servings. This is a very nice dish, although I may reduce  the amount of butter next time. A good amount of juice came out of the mushroom with butter and lemon flavor mixed in with soy sauce really heighten the earthy, meaty goodness of the mushroom.

Clam chowder クラムチャウダー

Small soup is nice to have as a course in a meal while you are having a drink but it is not easy to pair it with wines or other drinks. Dry sherry or some other aperitif may be called for. Umeshu 梅酒 or plum wine, as long as it is not too sweet. Or making a type of kir by adding umeshu to dry crisp white wines such as savignon blanc or even to sake may also work. We make Umeshu at home with much less sugar than commercial ones. Some bottles of our Umeshu have aged quite a long time since we started making it 20 some years ago and it is getting nicely mellow. We also made Umeshu using brandy which is also nice. (I may post our Umeshu some time in the future). All these could be a nice choice for the clam chowder (Boston style) that I made on one cold snowy day of which we have had way too many in Washington this winter. I, however, added Fino sherry in the bottom of the soup cup when I served this instead of having it as an aperitif.

This is, again, a quick simple recipe I came up with using a canned baby clams. I chop a strip of bacon into small pieces and slowly cook in a small sauce pan until crisp and the fat is rendered. An authentic recipe may call for salt pork or recommend blanching the bacon to remove the strong smoky taste but I like the smokiness that bacon imparts. I remove the bacon bits and set aside (to be used as garnish). I saute coarsely chopped onion (1 medium) for 4-5 minutes until soft and add potatoes (one large white potato cut into small cubes) and carrots (2 small cut into small rounds). I add the juice from a can of baby clams (10 oz) and chicken broth (No fat, low salt Swanson brand in a box) to just cover the vegetables. If you so prefer you could use the same amount of clam juice from a bottle. I then add two bay leaves, a very small pinch of dried thyme, and simmer for 15 minutes or until the vegetables are soft. I then add the baby clams and 1/2 cup of cream or milk (I used milk this time). When it comes back to a boil turn down the heat and add salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.

I served the chowder in a cup with a small amount of Fino sherry in the bottom and top it with the bacon bits and chopped parsley. Coming in from shoveling snow, this is a good one to have.   

The images below are taken the night of February 5 and morning of Feb 6 (after we rescued the pine tree and shoveled for several hours). I am originally from Sapporo but this is too much snow. If I wanted this kind of snow I could have stayed in Sapporo. As I am writing this, we are expecting another big snow storm with an expected snow accumulation of 8-16 inches or more. Where is spring!

Ramen noodle Part2 ラーメン その２

I just read an interesting article on Ramen noodles in Japan (Tokyo) in New York Times. I learned from this article that there are quite a few blogs both in English and Japanese on Ramen. In the previous ramen post, I also mentioned that you could get famous and regional ramen (at least soup and noodles) by mail order in Japan but apparently there is a specialized website for oversea Ramen fans.  I am not obsessed about or a connoisseur of ramen noodles but what an amazing world of the ramen noodles and the ramen obsessed! I also promise that this will the last post on ramen noodles.

When I posted "Japanese pork pot roast" 焼豚, I was trying to make it last until the next weekend so that I can make an example of a classic ramen noodle. It was miraculous that we still had the pork left on the next weekend. I also made another classic ramen topping, "seasoned" soft boiled eggs 煮卵 or 味付け卵  by simply marinating soft boiled eggs in the reduced marinade of the Japanese pork pot roast for several hours to overnight. 

Here I served "seasoned" (this one is overnight marinating) soft boiled egg and the roasted pork with "jabara" 蛇腹 cucumber as a starter. We actually had this with California Cab Salvestrin 2005 and both pork and egg went very well with it.

I made a sort of classic and simple "shio" 塩ラーメン or "salt" ramen in which "soup" is chicken broth with salt without soy sauce or miso paste. Again, the way I made the broth is my own short-cut method. I try to enhance flavors of a store-bought chicken broth. I saute one small onion thinly cut in a sauce pan with a small amount of vegetable oil and a splash of dark roasted sesame oil. I brown or caramelize onion with several thin slices of fresh ginger. When the onion is browned and "fond" has developed on the bottom of the pan, I add chopped garlic and saute for few more minutes. I then deglaze with sake (2 tbs or so) and scrape off the "fond" as much as I can. Then I add chicken broth (I used a 16oz box, which is about 470ml, of Swanson zero-fat, 33% reduced salt chicken broth). I let it simmer until I am ready for the noodles and toppings. Just before serving, I taste and add salt if needed (It has reduced to about 400ml, this is one of the reasons I use a low-salt variety). I pour only the broth through a strainer into the two bowls, discarding the solids. The resulting broth has a nice chicken flavor with some sweetness from the onion and a slight ginger note and is not bad. I used the same dried ramen noodles I used before and divided one serving into two small portions.

For toppings, two thick slices of the pork pot roast 焼豚 or チャーシュー, half of "seasoned" egg (marinate for 1 hour), seasoned bamboo shoots called "menma" メンマ or "shinachiku" 支那竹 (meaning chinese-style bamboo shoots) (see below image), thinly sliced scallion, and Nori 海苔 seaweed. I add freshly ground black pepper, although traditinally Japanese uses finely ground white pepper.

These toppings are classic. Slices of the Japanese pork pot roast definitely make this dish. The egg is also excellent.

Daikon marinated in beer 大根のビール漬け

Tsukemono 漬け物 is always one of the favorites in Izakaya. Most common one is called "asazuke" 浅漬 which I posted in the past. This one is new to me but was mentioned by my niece and she raved about it. I looked for the recipe on the Internet and found quite a few. I am not sure who first invented the dish but this is definitely a new wave tsukemono. There are some variations but after reading these recipes, I decided to base mine on one of them but the amount of sugar looked way too much, so even not knowing how this should taste, I reduced the sugar in half (which, in retrospect, was the right decision). I made a small amount since I never tasted this before.

I mixed the following ingredients in a bowl and poured it in a gallon-size Ziploc bag; 

Beer 180* ml (I used Samuel Adams Summer Ale), rice vinegar 25 ml, salt 20 grams (I used Kosher salt), sugar 50 grams (the origianl called for 100 grams), Japanese hot mustard powder 10 grams. 

I used my electronic scale to weigh these. I am glad my scale had a metric mode. I used about 10 cm long medium daikon, peeled, cut into quarters length wise. I just put into the marinade and into the refrigerator.

We tasted it after 5 days and, then, at 1  and 2 weeks. It mellows out after 1-2 weeks. This is surprisingly good as everyone is saying. The daikon is still very crunchy with a combination of flavors. But, to me, even after cutting the sugar in half, it is still a bit too sweet. My wife said she liked it and did not feel it was too sweet. This one goes well as is as a side while sipping sake and also with rice. I may experiment with different kinds of beer.

P.S. I originally wrorte "90 ml" but it should have been 180ml.