Soft shell crab tempura redux ソフトシェルクラブの天ぷら 再登場

I posted this about year ago but it is the season for a soft shell crab again and when I saw live soft shell crabs at the market, I had to get them. I was amazed at how my presentation of this dish is so similar to last year's presentation. In any case, the only difference is that I tried a new tempura batter formula after seeing the America's Test Kitchen episode on tempura.

They take a somewhat scientific approach to making tempura batter light and crispy. The idea here is not to let the gluten develop too much. The most common Japanese way of making tempura batter is to use cake flour or weak flour "hakurikiko" 薄力粉 in combination with potato starch or "katakuriko" 片栗粉, whole egg or egg yolk, ice cold water and do not over mix it. The America's test kitchen's method is to add "alcohol" in this mix to further prevent gluten formation and to use seltzer water (which many Western chefs have done for tempura batter). So I wanted to try this to see if it made any difference.

Liquid component: Selzer water (non-sweetened, of course, 1 cup), Vodka (1 cup) and whole egg (one) mixed together.

Dry component: Cake flour (1 cup) and potato starch (1/4 cup). The original recipe calls for AP (all purpose) flour instead of cake flour.

Actually, my dry ingredients were proportionally much less for two crabs and 4 asparaguses. In addition I used only a portion of the liquid mixture to attain the desired consistency of the batter. 

The result was a good nice light crust but we were not sure this was any better than my regular batter with or without eggs. Soft shell crab may not be ideal to test the tempura crust because the shell gets crispy even if you don't use tempura batter. We will try again with a more appropriate food medium to assess the crust. In any case, we love soft shell crab tempura and we have to make it at least once in the season.

Talking about the season, the iris were in full bloom in our garden. We were surprised when this pure white one appeared among all its purple cousins. My wife arranged it using a Japanese-style base with "kenzan" 剣山. 

Baby artichoke, olives, and feta cheese salad ベイビイアーティチョーク、オリーブ、フェタチーズのサラダ

This is a perfect starter to have with wine. My wife bought a dozen baby artichokes. I proposed baby artichokes fried in olive oil as per Italian Jewish style but she wanted to steam them and eat the best part, the hearts. Since we had also just bought several different kinds of olives, we ended up making this impromptu Mediterranean-style salad.

Baby artichokes: My wife prepared the baby artichokes and I assembled them into a salad. She put water in the bottom of a large Dutch oven with olive oil, onion, lemon slices, black pepper corns and bay leaves. She then placed a steamer basket over the water. The baby artichokes were prepared by first cutting of the discolored stem end, and top of the petal. She also peeled the skin off the stem. Then, the artichokes were placed petal side down in the steamer basket and steamed for about 20 minutes or until the hearts could be pierced easily. After they cooled down enough to be safely handled, she removed the outer tough petals. She cut the larger ones in half to make sure the "chokes" were not developed and still tender. If there was a choke, she removed it. I quickly tossed the prepared artichoke hearts in olive oil and lemon juice while they were still warm.

Other ingredients: We had several kinds of olives including green ones in a spicy marinade, oil cured black etc. I just cut up these olives (pitted as needed). I also got a yellow streaked heirloom tomato (I do not know the varietal but it was called "locally grown". It must have been grown in a hot house. It was not as good as I expected). I skinned and diced it. I also used a 1/3 block of feta cheese, crumbled. I also added thinly sliced red onion.

Assembly: I mixed all the ingredients, splashed them with a good fruity olive oil, Champagne vinegar (very mild tasting), black pepper, salt, chopped parsley, and Tabasco. I added these in stages as I tasted the salad. 

I served this as a sort of antipasto with slices of three different kinds of cheese (Havarti with dill, aged cheddar, and smoked Gouda) and fig preserve. The gentle nutty sweetness of the fig preserve was a perfect accompaniment for the cheeses. The baby artichoke salad was served on a bed of baby greens. Since we had a really good crusty Ciabatta bread, I added a slice, toasted, with drizzles of olive oil.

We had this sitting outside on our deck. The wine we had was Bodegas Resalte de Penafiel, Ribera del Duero, Crianza 2005. This region of Spain produces lots of good value wines which we like. This one is made of 100% Tempranillo and aged 18 months in 90% French Oak and 10% American Oak. Wine Spectator chose this wine as #26 of Top 100 for 2010 and gave 94 points. I am not sure I would go that high (may be 91-2) but it is a very good wine nonetheless. With this starter dish, sitting on the deck outside in perfect weather, we could not complain. Besides, there was the added gift of no mosquitoes (yet!). The acidity of the Champagne vinegar was mild enough not to compete with the red wine we were having and the taste of artichokes and salty bursts of olive were perfectly wonderful.

Cold tofu with crispy Jako, ginger and broccolini 冷や奴のカリカリじゃこブロコリーニ添え

There are so many variations of the toppings and sauces which you can have with a block of cold tofu called "hiya-yakko" 冷や奴*. I posted few examples. We liked this one particularly. I also thought the picture is rather nice and somewhat artistic in the dark background and one tiny eye looking at you from the top of tofu.

The secret is crispy "jako" 雑魚. I sautéed (or almost shallow fried) jako (frozen) in a dark sesame oil for 2-3 minutes on low-medium heat. After they became very crispy and fragrant, I placed them on several layers of paper towel to absorb excess oil. I had blanched broccolini. I cut the florets and thinly sliced the stalk on bias. I dressed the broccolini with Japanese mustard soy sauce (Japanese mustard, sugar and soy sauce). I also added thinly julienned ginger or "hari-shouga" 針ショウガ on the top. I just used undiluted mentsuyu 麺つゆ (x2 concentrate) as a sauce.

Sesame-flavored very crispy jako in contrast to the cold and silky texture of tofu was nice with bright ginger flavor, albeit this is a very "usual" or "mundane" dish. This definitely calls for sake.

(*Digression alert!: "Yakko" or 奴 is a name of the lower class servant - footman equivalent - in a Samurai household in Edo period who often wore a "happi" 法被 coat with a large square design or crest on the back (see image on the left). In Edo period, Tokugawa Shogun 徳川将軍mandated that local lords to come visit and live a part of the year in Edo (present Tokyo) to confirm their allegiance to Shogun. The lord had to travel to Edo in a prescribed slow and elaborate "daimyo" procession or 大名行列, which was very costly by design. Certain numbers of "yakko" were required in the procession among other things. One of the reasons for the mandatory "daimyo" procession was to deplete the local lords' wealth so that they could not afford to build up military power against Shogun. I read somewhere that the reason for "yakko" wearing the generic square crest instead of specific family crests is that they were often temporarily hired to man the procession to reduce the cost. Although I can not vouch for this, I can imagine that the daimyo gazette classified page often had an entry such as "Have happi coat with square crest. Will travel." Thus, if you cut any food item into cubes, it is called "yakko ni kiru"  奴に切る or "cut into cubes". Hiya-yakko is cold -"hiya" means cold- tofu cut into a cube. There, this is more than you ever wanted to know.)

Baked spicy chicken wings 手羽のピリ辛焼き

This is another variation on the theme of chicken wings. Chicken wings are popular drinking snack in the U.S. (Buffalo wings) as well as in Izakaya in Japan. They are cheap and perfect with any drink. This variation is based on the recipe from Otsumami Yokocho p58. As you can see here, I followed the Japanese way of not removing the wing tips, although there is not much to eat in the wing tips.

I had a package of chicken wings (6). I noticed, the package had a sticker on it stating that the chicken was purely vegetarian and no animal by-products were fed--does this piece of information make me feel better about eating them? We - well, most of us - are omnivores but we like vegetarian chickens). I separated the drummetts and made a slit in the wings between two bones (ulna and radius to be precise). 

I then marinated the drummetts and wings in a Ziploc bag with sake (2 tbs), mirin (2 tbs), soy sauce (4 tbs), Chinese chili paste (1/2 tsp, use more for spicier wings, hot bean sauce 豆瓣酱 or chili garlic sauce 蒜蓉辣椒醬, I used the latter), garlic (one fat clove grated) and ginger (1/2 tsp grated) for 20-30 minutes.

I baked them in a hot oven (450F, convection on the top rack) for 10 minutes and turned them over and baked another 10 minutes until the skin became crispy and the edges browned.

I served this with a wedge of lemon (I had extra chopped parsley. I garnished the one side of the lemon wedge with this.), drunken cherry tomatoes. This is a very nice drinking snack similar to Buffalo wings with an Asian twist. It could have been a bit spicier even for us. Next time, I will increase the amount of hot chili paste.

Simmered and baked Vidalia spring onion 春物バイデリアオニオンのスープ煮

Vidalia onion is named after a place in Georgia called Vidalia. These onions are known for their mild flavor (for onions) and sweetness. It appears that there is a strict definition of what constitutes a vidalia onion based on the growing region and varietal used--if not from the specific counties in Georgia specified by law, it may be a sweet onion but it is not a Vidalia. In addition the vidalia onion is the state vegetable in Georgia (I didn't know states had official state veggies). It seems that  Vidalia onion is sweet because of the soil which is said to be low in sulfur and the characteristic of the particular onion varietal. Further digression: One of the our favorite restaurants in DC is called "Vidalia". The restaurant is known for new Southern cuisine which includes baked Vidalia onion.  In any case, I got spring Vidalia onion* and made this simple dish to enjoy its wonderful sweetness.

(* Spring onions are, as I understand it, young onion in spring; the bulb is still small and the flavor is mild and sweet. As seen the image on the left. This image was borrowed from this website.

I bought 4 onions. I just cut the root end and green parts and removed some of the blemished outer skins. I cooked this in chicken broth with bay leaves (3) and black pepper corns (5-6) for 20 minutes or so. I then put the cooked onion in a small ramekin in which the oinons fit snugly. I cut one in half to make them fit snugly). I added a small amount of the cooking broth on the bottom (2 tbs). I added soy sauce (1 tsp or salt), pats of butter (1 tsp), grated parmesan cheese and baked it in a 400F toaster oven for 10-15 minutes. I garnished with chopped parsley.

This is very simple preparation but brought out the sweetness of the spring Vidalia onion.

Amaebi Ceviche 甘エビのサビーチェ

This is what I made from the two largest amaebi shrimp we received from the latest shipment of goodies from Catalina Offshore products. This is more like a classic ceviche than the one in the previous post. In addition, I remembered that we had an interesting Martini glass and used it to serve the amaebi ceviche. I am going to present a tight shot, followed by a long shot, and a longest shot this time.

After I removed the head and roe (both shrimp had a large amount of roe) which was used in miso soup, I removed the shell and tail. I deveined and then cut it into small rounds. The marinade is mixture of freshly squeezed lime juice (4-5 tbs from 2 limes) and yuzu juice (1/2 tsp from the bottle). I added the zest of the lime (1/2 tsp, grated by a micro-grater), Vidalia spring onion (half, finely chopped), tomatoes (half, deseeded, skinned, and diced), Jalapeno pepper (1/2, seed and veins removed and finely chopped), parsley (1/2 tsp, finely chopped), salt and pepper. I mixed this into the marinade and added the shrimp. I let it steep (chemically cook) for few hours in the refrigerator.

To serve, I drained the excess marinade, added a splash of good olive oil, sake, Tabasco (after tasting, I thought, it needed a bit more heat), and soy sauce. I placed it in the Martini glass on ice and garnished it with wedge of tomato and cucumber slices.

Cold sake appears to be appropriate for this dish. Compared to the previously posted amaebi ceviche which is not really (chemically) cooked, this is more like a traditional ceviche, and it tasted good. I did this because, although the shrimp was packed with ice in the meat conpartment of the refregirator, it had been 2 days since we received the live amaebi.

Deep fried shrimp heads and Royal trumpet mushroom tempura 海老の頭の唐揚げとエリンギの天ぷら

I have posted deep fried shrimp heads before but it is, again spring season for amaebi or spot prawns. As usual, this came from Catalina offshore products and the shrimp was wild caught in water off San Diego. When they arrived, all of them were still arrive (albeit just barely), which was a very good sign.

One of the problems with spring amaebi (spot prawns) is their size. Although this was supposed to be 12 count per pound, We had only 6 in the pound; 4 were about 10C in size but two were gigantic. For sashimi, we prefer the small size. For smaller amamebi, the heads can be easily deep fried but when shrimp are too big, it is not feasible to do this.

In any case, we first had the four smaller ones as sashimi and also made deep fried shrimp heads. I trimmed the antennae and blotted the excess moisture (using paper towels) and fried in 350-370F peanuts oil for 6-7 minutes. After draining the oil, while they were still hot, I salted them. Since I had hot oil, I also cooked some royal trumpet mushrooms (very similar to eryngii which are popular in Japan) tempura. I tore one mushroom into 4 pieces from the bottom of the stem.  Tempura batter was made of cake flour with the addition of potato starch and cold water (4:1 ratio of the flour and potato starch. I added cold water until the desired loose "batter" consistency was reached).

The shrimp heads had a very nice crunchy shell and lots of sweet meat that almost tasted like small lobster. A word of caution;  bite down  the shell  perpendicular to your teeth lest you incur injury from the sharp shell or leg impailing your pallet or gums. For sashimi, beside sweet shrimp, we had maguro (ko-toro 小トロ bordering on chu-toro 中トロ) and uni 雲丹 sea urchin. Nothing but sake works for us for this type of food.