Hand-made udon 手打ち煮込みうどん

This is hand-made (home-made) udon but I did not make the udon. It was made by Chef Masaya Kitayama of Sushi Taro . I am just showcasing his contribution. We had another extraordinary "omakase" dinner at Sushi Taro. Although everything was excellent as usual, there were a number of "stand-outs" such as grilled "shirako" 白子, grilled bamboo shoot 竹の子, ankimo 鮟肝 (not the usual pre-processed frozen kind I get), bonito tataki 鰹のたたき (done in a special way using fine grained salt), and firefly squid 蛍イカ. It is very nice touch that Masa serves dishes anticipating our preferences--serving just the right amount.  Even though we had pleasantly left hunger well behind by the end of the meal, we asked for one more sushi just for the pleasure of it.  After we finished, Masa said he had a souvenir for us. He brought out a Soba cutting knife, and I said "Hand-made soba" but I was wrong. It was hand-made udon or "teuchi udon" 手打ちうどん. The dough was already rested, folded and ready to be cut. In front of us, he cut the dough into udon noodles. Masa said, he had to try several times to get the right mixture of flours to make a perfect dough. The next evening I made this "nikomi udon" 煮込みうどん with scallion and chicken as a "shime" dish.

Udon: The image below on the left is Masa's teuchi udon before cooking. I cooked it in plenty of boiling water for 10 minutes and washed it in cold running water and drained (right image below).

Chicken: I used two chicken thighs, deboned, skin removed. The chicken had been marinating in sake for a day in the fridge. I cut the chicken into bite sized pieces and dunked them into boiling water for 30 seconds until the surface turned white ("frosting" or shimofuri 霜降り process). I drained and washed in running cold water. All this is to remove any possible strong or gamey taste that the chicken may have or in Japanese culinary parlance, "kusami o toru" 臭みを取る.

Broth: I could have made my own "kaeshi" かえし but I did not. I made dashi broth from a dashi pack. I placed the dashi pack in cold water (about 2 cups) on low-medium flame and continued simmering for 2-3 minutes after it came to gentle boil. I removed the dashi pack and added bottled mentsuyu 麺つゆ (x2 concentrate) tasting and adding until I was satisfied. You could use a combination of mirin, sake and soy sauce instead. Although I did not make home-made "kaeshi", this method produced a very good broth for noodles.

Scallion: I used scallion (3 with some green parts attached) cut the white part into 1 inch length on a slant. I chopped the green parts more finely. 

I added the udon noodles, chicken, and the white part of the scallion to the broth and simmered for 3-4 minutes until the chicken was just done. I added the chopped green parts of the scallion and took the pot off the flame.

I divided the udon into two bowls and garnished with lime zest, thinly shaven and cut into very fine strips (since I did not have "Yuzu" 柚子) and splashed "Yuzu" juice from the bottle (of course, use Yuzu if you have a fresh one). I also sprinkled Japanese 7 flavored red pepper or shichimi tougarashi 七味唐辛子.

Nothing commercially made, either frozen or dried, can come close to Masa's teuchi udon. The texture was so different and nice-it had a satisfying al dente feel but was quite soft at the same time. My contribution was very mild tasting chicken and the broth. The broth was excellent (if I say so myself despite my shortcut way.) We had this as a shime dish and it was a very pleasant extension of the fabulous meal we had the night before. What a satisfying finale. Thank you Masa.

P.S. We ate the remaining udon the next evening (for us, the amount of the Masa's teuchi udon was enough for 4 servings). By my wife's request, I made, fried udon or yakiudon 焼うどん. This time, I made it vegetarian with shimeji and royal trumpet mushrooms, onion, garlic, ginger, and broccolini. I seasoned it with oyster sauce and soy sauce. The garnish is the usual pickled ginger, white sesame seeds and aonori.

CityZen for Japan

It is heart wrenching to watch the hardships of Japanese Earth Quake survivors. After considering what we could do to help, even a little thing, we decided to join in Chef Eric Ziebold's (of CityZen) fund raising effort for Japan. One of our concerns about making donations is making sure they actually get to the survivors. Eric personally responded to our questions about how the funds are delivered to the survivors (through Relief International). It appears our favorite Japanese restaurants such as Tako Grill, Sushi Taro are also participating.

If you are interested here is the link:

https://www.ri.org/donate/donate-cityzen.php

A Benefit for the People of Japan: Dinner & Auction at CityZen

On Monday, April 18, Washington D.C.'s celebrated CityZen restaurant at the Mandarin Oriental, in collaboration with the Asia Society and Washington Life Magazine, will be hosting a dinner fundraiser to support Relief International's response efforts in Japan. The evening's proceeds will provide direct support to earthquake and tsunami survivors.


The Evening's Agenda – Monday, April 18

6 p.m. to 7 p.m.	Reception and silent auction
7 p.m. to  9 p.m.	Live auction and food stations from CityZen partnering with our friends from Washington's best Japanese restaurants.
Ticket Cost:	$250 per person; 100% of ticket sales directly benefits Relief International's aid efforts in Japan. Once purchased, tickets can be picked up at the entrance of the event.
Dinner Location:	CityZen Restaurant Mandarin Oriental Hotel 1330 Maryland Avenue, SW Washington, D.C. 20024

Burdock fettuccine with red pepper and anchovy 牛蒡のペぺロンチーノ

When I buy gobo 牛蒡, I usually get one gobo at a time but this time, the minimum amount I could buy was two. So, besides my usual, kimpira 金平 or nituske 煮付け, I decided to expand my repertoire of gobo dishes. Emulating noodles by using julienned and/or long shavings of vegetables (such as potato, nagaimo or daikon )(for that matter, spaghetti squash does not even need to be cut into a noodle shape) is not unusual but making noodles from gobo is new to me. I saw this in e-recipe and decided to try it.

Gobo: I used the stem half of gobo for two servings. After I scraped off the skin using the back of the knife under running water, I used a vegetable peeler to make nice thin long strips. I immediately put the gobo strips in acidulated water. I changed the water several times until the water became clear. I drained and patted the gobo strips dry using paper towels.

Cooking: I heated olive oil (1 tbs) in a frying pan on medium-low flame. I added garlic (two cloves, finely chopped) and anchovy (2 fillets, finely chopped). When the garlic and anchovy became fragrant, I added the gobo strips and red pepper flakes. I stirred it for 2 minutes more or so and seasoned it with salt (taste before adding salt, the anchovy may be salty enough) and black pepper. I added chopped fresh parsley at the end.

This is a surprisingly good dish.  It has a nice spiciness and the gobo provides a pleasing firm texture. The garlic, anchovy, and red pepper create layers of flavors that all go well together. This is a perfect drinking snack. Any drinks including cold sake (not warm sake), wines (especially a nice peppery Australian syrah) and beer will pair well.

Salt-preserved wakame salad 塩蔵わかめの酢の物

Wakame わ かめ is one type of edible seaweed commonly used in Japanese cooking especially in soup or salad (sunomono 酢の物). Wakame can be bought fresh or "nama" 生 (available only seasonally in Japan--not here in the U.S.). Other preparations are salt preserved or "enzou" 塩蔵, and dried or "kansou" 乾燥. Except for fresh wakame, all others are first briefly boiled (which turns the natural brown color of wakame to the green we are familiar with), then, either salt-preserved or dried. The dried variety is most commonly available here in the U.S. and its shelf-life is very long. It is also very convenient (just put it in a soup or hydrate before use) but it lacks flavor and texture. Since it is next to impossible to get fresh wakame, the next best thing is to salt-preserved wakame especially if you are a wakame connoisseur.

I found a package of salt preserved wakame in a near-by Japanese grocery store. I included this picture to show you that this salt-preserved wakame came from "Sanriku" 三陸, the area devastated in the earthquakes and tsunami on March 11, 2011. (Although the Japanese writing on the package said "raw wakame" 生わかめ, this is salt-preserved not "raw".) When you take out one strand of wakame, it looks like the one on the left of the image below.

To use this type of wakame is rather easy and it re-hydrates faster than the dried kind. I just washed it in cold running water to remove the salt and then soaked it in water for a few minutes. It re-hydrated and went back to its natural size and consistency as seen on the right of the image below. It was boiled before being salt preserved. As a result, the hydrated wakame has a nice green color. Since it is not pre-cut, I had to cut it into  appropriate size pieces after squeezing out the excess water.

I just made my ususal sunomono with salt-preserved wakame, cucumber and diced (or concasse of) tomato. For dressing, you could use bottled sushi vinegar,  "sanbai-zu" 三杯酢 (you mix rice vinegar 3 tbs, soy suace 1 tsp, salt 1/3 tsp, and sugar 1/2 tbs), or Ponzu shouyu ポン酢醤油 (from the bottle). You could also make sumiso 酢みそ dressing if you like. I used sanbai-zu. Sometimes, I also add a small amount of good olive oil or sesame oil to make it interesting. Since I had a small piece of tarako omelet left over, I also added the slices.

Is salt preserved wakame better than dried? For sunomono, I think it is. For soup, the difference is less noticeable. The salt preserved wakame should last a few weeks in the refrigerator after opening the package and if you freeze it, should last at least 5-6 months. The dried wakame may last a few years. You have to try it to determine if getting salt-preserved wakame is worth it for you.

Tuna and scallion hotpot ねぎま鍋

I found fresh yellow-fin tuna at the near-by grocery store where we buy pasteurized eggs. Although it was said to be "sashimi" grade and looked and smelled fresh, I wasn't going to take any chances. I decided to make this nabe dish called "Negima" nabe ねぎま鍋. "Negi" 葱 is scallion and "ma" is a short for "Maguro" 鮪 or tuna so this is a nabe dish with scallion and tuna. If you have Japanese "naga negi" 長ネギ or Tokyo scallion, which is much thicker than regular scallion, and more closely resembles small leeks, this dish would be better.  I, however, had no choice but to used regular scallion (close to Japanese "ban-nou negi" 万能葱 or "asatsuki" 浅葱). Again, there are many variations of this dish but "negi" and "maguro" are two name-sake must-have items.

Broth: I first made "dashi' broth using kelp and bonio dashi pack (about 500ml). I added sake (2ts), mirin (2 tbs) and "usukuchi" or light colored soy sauce (4 tbs). 

Ingredients: As  you can see below, I cut tuna into pieces that were a bit larger and thicker than sashimi size (1 lb). I also cut the scallion into pieces about 1 inch long on a slant (6, I chose the thickest ones I can find), and tofu (one). Other possible ingredients could include some leafy greens, fresh mushrooms (either enoki or shiitake), and shirataki 白滝.

I started with scallion and tofu. When they were near done, I added the tuna. I tried not to overcook it but it is very very easy to overcook. Once that happens, you could just leave it in a pot to cook it longer which may make it more tender again . I served it with yuzukosho 柚子胡椒 (dark green paste on the small plate).

I think this is an Ok dish but I am not a big fan of cooked tuna. Good tuna is best eaten raw. But on cold nights such as we were still having, this is a very warming dish. Yuzukosho gave a spicy citrusy counter taste to the rather bland taste of cooked tuna. This dish went perfectly with sake.

Boeuf Bourguignon 牛肉の赤ワイン煮

Sometimes we come across a wine that is OK but we would rather not drink (life is too short). Sometimes after returning the wine to the bottle, we classify it as a "Wednesday" wine-- meaning that although it wasn't good enough for dinner on Sunday, no matter how bad it may have tasted on Sunday, by Wednesday that wine (or any other wine for that matter) would taste good. In other cases the wine can not even classify as a Wednesday wine. We had one such bottle of wine and the only thing left to do was make beef stew. This dish probably does not qualify to be called "Bourguignon" since the wine was not burgundy but Chilean Cab. I did not look up any specific recipe. My recipe has some apparent deviation from the classic (if such a thing exists); one is not using bacon since I do not find too much difference in the end result except adding more fat. I did not have regular button mushrooms (we don't particularly like them), so I used fresh shiitake instead. Lastly, I did not have pearl onions or cippolini but  I did happen to have parsnips. Despite these deviations, the end result was quite good (allow me again to self boast).

Beef: I happened to come across some very reasonably priced beef for stew and bought it (about 2.5 lb). I suspect this could have been rump roast or round but I'm not sure. I salted and peppered the beef cubes and dredged in flour. In a large Dutch oven (or stock pot), I added light olive oil (3 tbs) on medium flame and browned the beef cubes in two batches so that all the surfaces get nicely browned and crusty leaving brown bits ("fond") on the bottom of the pan (#1, below).

Wine: Any semi drinkable dry red wine would do. I used the wine that failed to classify as even a Wednesday wine  (1 bottle or 750ml) as I mentioned above but, of course, you could use Burgundy.

I removed the beef from the pot and covered it with an aluminum foil and set aside. I added finely chopped onion (2 medium), garlic (5 cloves), celery (3 stalks and leaves) to the pot and sauté for 5-6 minutes. The moisture from the vegetables helps dislodge  the "fond" but I further deglazed it with a small amount of red wine to make sure all the "fond" gets incorporated. I added back the beef with the juice accumulated on the bottom of the plate and added the remainder of the red wine. 

Bouquet garni: I did not have fresh thyme. I initially made BG from two stalks of celery, 4 bay leaves, 3 sprigs of parsley, 2 stalks of fresh rosemary tied with a butcher twine, but, at the end, I decided to remove all the solids from the cooking liquid.  I really did not have to make BG and could have just thrown in everything. I also added 5-6 whole back pepper corns and dried thyme (1/4 tsp). I did not add any liquid but wine. When it came to a boil, I skimmed off the scum that formed on the surface. Then turned down the heat to simmer. I put the lid on and cooked for more than 1 hour (#2).

Vegetables: It is important to cook vegetables separately, not in the wine with the meat. The acidity of the wine appears to prevent starchy vegetables such as potatoes from getting cooked properly (i.e. they never become soft). I combined the meat and vegetables after both were properly cooked. I cooked the vegetables in salted water in a separate pot which included potatoes (6 small Yukon gold, peeled), carrot (3 medium, cut in 1 inch rounds), parsnip (3 small, cut in half inch segments) (to cook everything together, give the potatoes a 15 minute head start). If I had pearl onion or cippolini, I would have cooked them in water or chicken stock until they were soft or the liquid mostly evaporated. Then I would have sautéed them in butter to brown the surface before adding to the stew. For the shiitake mushrooms, I cut them into large chunks (6 large), sauteed in butter and deglaze with a small amount of brandy (be careful of flare ups). The cooked vegetables were drained immediately and set aside in a bowl.

After the beef became tender, I removed the meat to another container and strained the remaining simmering liquid to remove all solids pressing to extract all the juice. I put back the liquid in the pot (The liquid was now nice dark burgundy color and slightly thickened. I switched to a smaller pot at this point), added back the beef and the vegetables (#3). I simmered it for another 30 minutes (#4).

We tasted a little of the stew but we did not eat it immediately (because we had fresh tuna we had to eat that evening). I put the pot in the fridge after it cooled to room temperature. The next day, I reheated it on a low flame and adjusted the seasoning with salt and pepper. I served this with Pennsylvania Dutch noodles and green beans. The result was well worth the effort. The beef was fork tender and flavorful and the sauce is very rich and with layers of velvety flavor (may I say unctuous?). We really liked the parsnips in the stew. They added a slight sweetness.

The obvious choice of libation was a good red wine. We had this with Flora Springs Winery, Flora's Legacy, Cabernet Sauvignon 2006. This is a solid Napa cab, not too fruit- or vanilla-laden but with complex black fruit upfront with a nice backbone of tannin and went so well with this dish. Perfect!

Burdock "gobo" beef roll 牛蒡の牛肉巻き

When I made sukiyaki 鋤焼, I used a portion of the sukiyaki beef to make this dish. This type of roll is very common in Japanese cooking and they are popular in izakaya as well as side dishes in a bento box. This time I used gobo and carrot in the center and seasoned it in a teriyaki style.  I could have used asparagus, green beans, scallion (famous "negimaki" 葱巻き) or other vegetables by themselves or in combination. This dish can also be made with chicken or pork as well (pound it thin). Other options are to season it with a miso-based sauce or breading it to deep fry. My version is a relatively healthy drinking snack.

To make this dish I prepared the vegetables ahead of time (1 day before) which makes this dish quicker and easier.

Vegetables: I scraped the skin off the gobo with the back of my knife and cut it into small batons (2-3 inches long and 1/3 inch thick). I soaked it in acidulated water for 10-15 minutes with several changes of water. I cut the carrot in the same shape and size. I cooked the gobo and carrot together in salted water for 15-20 minutes and then drained. I let them cool.

Meat: I used the kind of very thinly sliced beef used for sukiyaki. If this is not available, you may have to pound the beef into very thin pieces.

Assembly: I spread out one sheet of beef and dusted it lightly with flour. I placed 3 gobo and 3 carrot sticks on the near end (#1) of the meat and started rolling as tightly as possible (#2). I also dusted the outer surface of the rolls with flour as well (#3). I made a total of 6 rolls.

In a frying pan, I added vegetable oil (2 tbs) on a medium flame. I browned the surface of the rolls (#4) starting from the seam side. You have to make sure all the surfaces are browned by turning the rolls 90 degrees after browning one side. I then added sake (1 tbs), mirin (1 tbs) and soy sauce (2 tbs) (#5).( Be careful about flare-ups). I shook the pan and turned the rolls so that all the surface was coated with the sauce. After 4-5 minutes, the sauce reduced and caramelized (#6). I made sure all the roll surfaces were evenly coated.

Here is the cut surface.

I cut the roll into 4 pieces and served.  It was nice eating this hot but this also tastes great at room temperature or even cold. The gobo has a nice crunchy consistency and all the flavors are very nice. After wolfing down the roll I served as a starter dish, my wife asked why I was being so stingy only serving one roll per person as a teaser. I told her that more dishes were coming and we did not want to fill up with this one dish. After a pause she said that was OK because the remaining rolls would only taste better the next day after the flavors had more time to meld...and she was correct. This dish will go with any drink perhaps a good sturdy Cabernet but we are partial to cold sake here.