Simmered Bamboo shoot with Wakame 若竹煮もどき

Newly harvested bamboo shoots are a sign of spring in Japan (not in Hokkaido, though, it is too cold for big bamboo to grow). When bamboo is cooked with fresh wakame sea weed, it is called "Wakatake-ni" 若竹煮 and is considered the ultimate combination of two seasonal food items in spring. My dish is not quite authentic; first of all, I made this from a vacuum packed boiled bamboo shoot and second, the wakame I used is not fresh or even salt preserved but dried. "Otsumami yokocho" volume 1 on page 44 has a similar but more simplified version of this dish. In the U.S., both bamboo shoot and fresh wakame are "out of season" so this is the best I can do for this dish.

The boiled bamboo shoot I bought at a near-by Japanese grocery store had "Himekawa" 姫皮 attached (left image). Himekawa is the very soft top inner part of bamboo shoot. I removed this first and cut it into strips. I was initially thinking of using this for a different dish such as a Japanese "ae-mono" salad but I got lazy and decided to use it in this dish as well. I added "himekawa" to the pot just before serving to warm it up and season. You need not really cook this part further.

I cut off the lower 1/3 (I intended to use the lower part for other dish) and cut the top portion in quarters lengthwise. Then I further cut it into small wedges. You may find chalky white stuff between the segments of bamboo shoot. This is an amino acid (tyrosine) congealed. Tyrosine is not water soluble and is contained abundantly in the bamboo shoot itself.  As such, it is not harmful and OK to eat but, for a better presentation, you may want to wash off most of the visible ones.

I put dashi (1 cup), mirin (1 tbs), sake (1 tbs) and soy sauce (2 tbs) in a small pan on medium flame. If you want to keep the light color of the bamboo shoot, use a light colored soy sauce or "usukuchi shuyu". When it comes to a boil, turn the heat down to simmer. I cook it for about 20-30 minutes or until the cooking liquid is reduced in half. Just 1 minute before serving, I add "himekawa" and hydrated wakame to warm them up but not really "cook" them. To serve, I first place the wakame (left, back in the above picture) and "himekawa" (right, back) in a sallow bowl. I took out the cooked bamboo shoot in another bowl and added bonito flakes and mixed to coat (optional) and served them next to the wakame and himekawa as seen above.

For dried wakame and vacuum packed bamboo shoot, this was not bad. We had this with cold sake as a second dish after we had the avocado and tunas sashimi cubes, a very nice contrast.

Cornish game hen with ratatouille and baked cauliflower and green beans コーニシュ ゲーム ヘン と ラタトゥイユ

I posted barbecued Cornish hens before . This is the second best way to have Cornish game hen especially on a weeknight. Since we are not barbecuing, it may not have enough taste, thus, requiring prior marination.

On one weekend, we made a couple of vegetable dishes including ratatouille, baked green beans, and baked cauliflower with back olive and garbanzo beans. I cooked a Cornish game hen on Monday evening with these vegetables as side dishes. Because the bird is small, it cooks rather quickly. I pan-fried and then finished it in the oven.

I remove the back bone using kitchen shears by cutting lengthwise across either side of the bone. I flatten the bird on the cutting board skin-side down and then cut the breast bone lengthwise in half using a heavy chef's knife making two halves of the hen.  I marinated the hen over night in the refrigerator using a mixture of olive oil, lemon juice, crushed garlic, roughly cut stalks of green onion, salt and pepper.  Essentially, you are marinating the birds in French vinaigrette. You could add herbs like rosemary or tarragon. The next day, after draining, the marinade, I pat dry the surface with a paper towel and lightly sprinkle salt and pepper. In a frying pan, I add olive oil (1 tbs) and cook the skin side down for 5-7 minutes until the skin become brown. You may have to blot the excess oil using paper towels during this process. I flip the bird over and finish cooking in a 400F convection oven for about 15 minutes or maybe a bit longer. After 15 minutes, take the temperature at the thickest thigh part if or when it registers 160F or higher, remove the bird to a plate and loosely cover with aluminum foil and let it rest for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, I make a simple pan juice sauce. If there is too much oil in the pan, remove most of it (leaving 1-2 tsp) by blotting with a paper towel. Put the pan on a medium flame and add finely chopped shallot and saute for 1-2 minutes, de-glaze with dry red wine (1/4 cup) (white wine, Marsala, or white vermouth will also work), reduce the liquid by half. Add any juice accumulated on the plate on which the bird is resting.  I finish the sauce by adding and emulsifying with pats of butter. Usually it does not need additional salt and pepper since these come off the surface of the bird to the pan while cooking.

The only way to enjoy a Cornish game hen is to use your fingers and go at it. The meat is more succulent than its larger cousin and the skin, especially of the wing, is crispy.

Braised beef, cabbage and fennel in butter and soy sauce 牛肉とキャベツの炒め物

I took this picture when I served this dish but a few days later when I tried to write up the recipe, I couldn't remember how I made it for a moment--sometimes I surprise myself. This was one of those made-from-leftover type quick and small dishes.  Looking at the picture carefully, I remembered that I used leftover skirt steak, cabbage and fennel. Not really post-worthy but here we go.

I thinly slice left-over skirt steak across the grain, cut cabbage (after removing the thick veins) into thin strips and thinly sliced fennel. I put a small amount of vegetable oil and a dash of dark roasted sesame oil in a pan and sauteed the vegetables for several minutes on a high flame. I then added the steak, mirin and soy sauce and braised for few more minutes. I garnished with roasted white sesame seeds.

This is a nothing small dish but still pretty good especially with sake.

Pork saute with red miso sauce 豚肉のソーテー赤味噌ソース

This is part of a whole pork loin we bought on sale a few days ago. From this one piece of meat, I made six 1 inch thick chops, an oven roast and a Sino-Japanese style pot roast. This dish is made with 2 of the chops and served with red miso honey sauce.

Red miso sauce (for 2 serving as shown above):　I used red miso (1 tbs) which is mostly made of soybeans and is rather salty and has a somewhat bitter taste. I added warm dashi broth (2 tbs) and dissolved it over a very low flame. When the miso dissolved, I added sugar (1 tsp) and honey (1 tsp). I then added, a good ol' American ketchup (1 tbs). I kept stirring until it came to a simmer and reduced to a thick saucy consistency. I tasted and adjusted the seasonings (slightly more sugar). If it gets too thick, add a bit more dashi, sake, or water. I finished the sauce by incorporating a small amount of butter (1 tsp).

Pork chops: The chops were marinated in sake for a few days. This keeps the meat from spoiling too quickly as well as making the porky flavor mild. After blotting the moisture from the surface of the chops, I seasoned with salt and pepper and dredged in flour. I fried them in a small amount of vegetable oil on a medium flame to make both sides brown (2-3 minutes on each side) and then turned the flame down to complete cooking (another 4-5 minutes).

Since we are eating this with chopsticks, I pre-cut the pork chops and put on the sauce. For the accompaniment, we had nice French green beans (much tastier and skinnier than regular green beans), briefly boiled in salt water (still crispy) and then sauteed in butter with finely chopped shallot and garlic seasoned with salt and pepper. I also served leftover mashed popatoes reheated.  My wife made these a few days ago from boiled red potatoes seasoned with creme fraiche and soy sauce. (Don't ask me how she came up with this combination but it tastes pretty good.) I made this into a sort of a potato pancake. I simply pressed the mashed potatoes into a thin disk in a small non-stick frying pan with melted butter. I fried one side until browned and flipped it over to brown the other side.

Everything went very well. The red miso sauce has a salty nutty flavor and gentle sweetness. The slight bitterness of the miso goes well with the richness of the pork. Ketchup also adds to the dimension of the sauce and final addtion of butter made it richer.

We had this with Casali di Bibbiano Argante Toscana Rosso Red Blend 2006. This is a Super-Tuscan made of no Sangiovese but Cabernet Sauvignon (70%) and Merlot (30%). It tastes more like a good California cab. This is very nice red which went well with the pork and the red miso sauce.

Wine Spectator gave 91 score with a comment; "Blackberry jam and sandalwood aromas, with fresh herbs. Full-bodied, with velvety tannins and jammy fruit. Tannic and rich. Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. Best after 2011."(ws)

Chestnut and parsnip soup 栗のポタージュ

This is a very interesting soup/potage and this can be a very good starter dish. Here we served it in a demitasse cup.

This was made by my wife. The soup is made with peeled and boiled chestnuts sold in a jar from France. (With the failure I experienced trying to use chestnuts-in-the-shell, we are sticking to pre-processed products like this one when the recipe calls for chestnuts). 

She sauteed onions (one medium, roughly chopped), carrots (2 medium, peeled roughly chopped), and parsnip (4 small, peeled and chopped) for few minutes in butter (3 tbs). She then added the chestnuts (16oz) and low-sodium, fat free Swanson chicken stock (about 4 cups) and simmered for 30 minutes. Using an immersion blender she pureed the cooked mixture. She added more chicken broth to adjust the thickness of the soup and obtain a smoother texture. Then she seasoned with salt and white pepper. She served this garnished with a small dollop of creme fraiche and chopped chive.

The chestnuts give a very interesting sweet nutty taste which is complemented by the parsnips. The chestnuts and parsnips also add to a rich velvety texture of the soup. In all, this is a quite unique and good soup/potage.

Curry flavored chicken salad with grapes and cantaloupe カレー味のメロンとぶどう入り鶏肉のサラダ

I am not sure what is the origin of the recipe for this salad but it may have been based on a recipe in one of the cookbooks or magazines we have. In any case, it is very interesting since it is curry flavored and uses a combination of yogurt, manogo chutney and mayonnaise as a dressing with the addition of fruit; cantaloupe and grapes.

I made this with left-over barbecued chicken but any cooked chicken will do. I coarsely shredded the chicken by hand. Other ingredients are chopped celery, scallion, and walnuts (pre-toasted). I added grapes and cubes of cantaloupe but the fruit can be added later.  The amount of the ingredients are all arbitrary. Of course, I use seedless grapes.

Dressing: I used 2/3 cup plain yogurt and 1/3 cup mayonnaise (happened to be home-made from pasteurized eggs), Japanese-style curry powder (1 tsp, as much as you like, yogurt reduces the heat of the curry so you can use quite a bit of curry powder). and mango chutney (2 tbs, I  like Major Grey's). Season with salt if needed (I did not).

I served this as one of a small dish with a garnish of baby arugula, Campari tomato and a small dab of home-made mayonnaise. This small salad goes well with any drink. The curry flavor, sweetness of the mango chutney and of the fruit with crunch of walnuts all works well.

Spoon tofu with green tea salt and salted plum topping 掬い豆腐の抹茶塩と梅肉かけ

I have posted similar dishes before but this one is rather good. Tofu comes in various degrees of firmness such as momenkoshi 木綿ごし (firm) and kinugoshi 絹ごし (soft or silken), the softest kind of tofu is called "zarutofu" ざる豆腐 (tofu scoped up by a basket or "zaru" in Japanese but not pressed) and "sukuitofu" すくい豆腐 or spoon tofu. I happened to get a package of sukuitofu at the Japanese grocery store.

Since this tofu is so soft, you just spoon it into a small bowl. I topped this with green tea salt (a mixture of powdered green tea and kosher salt which I make in batches and keep in the freezer in a sealed container). To make this dish more interesting, I added umeboshi 梅干し or Japanese salted plum. This was from the last batch of home made that my mother sent me. I removed the meat of the umeboshi from the stone. I also included the red perilla leaves from the umeboshi container (salted red perilla adds the color and flavor to umeboshi) . I chopped finely both umeboshi and red perilla together and mixed in a small amount of sake (or mirin if you prefer some sweetness). For good measure, I also added a chiffonade of perilla.

Since the tofu is very soft, you just mix the toppings with the tofu using a spoon and enjoy. It had a perfect amount of saltiness and flavor. You have to have this with sake. We had this with chilled G-sake. 

P.S. I noticed that the taste of leftover G-sake deteriorates after a few days--losing its fresh clean taste and becoming very cloying, even if the the bottle is tightly sealed and kept in a refrigerator. This means that if we open the bottle, we have to finish it in one sitting. What a hardship!