Sweet red bean and rice cake ぜんざい

This is obviously not Izakaya food at all and is probably the ultimate antithesis of it. I never thought I would be making this dish. But the aforementioned new gourmet grocery store has a large section of bulk grains and beans. All kinds of interesting items can be found there and you could even grind the grains of your choice or in combination to make your own flours. I actually found red beans or azuki 小豆 あずき (altenetive spelling, "adzuki"). I have never seen raw azuki beans being sold in the U.S. before* (canned cooked azuki is available). Tokachi plane 十勝平野 in Hokkaido 北海道, the northernmost island of Japan where I am originally from, is famous for producing azuki.  I have never attempted to cook azuki before--and there are reasons that I haven't. The most common use of azuki is to make Japanese sweets called "an" 餡, from which traditional Japanese sweets such as "Yokan" 羊羹 and "Zenzai" ぜんざい etc are made. I do not particularly care for them. They are also used to make "red rice" or "sekihan" 赤飯, a traditional celebratory food, which, I did not particularly like as a kid, liked even less as an adult and avoided eating if at all possible. Despite all this, when I saw the azuki in the bin, I had to get some. I have been in the U.S. too long, perhaps (or maybe the novelty of the situation overcame me).

*I was wrong about this. I simply was not looking for it before.  I did find raw red beans, vacuum packed, as well as canned cooked - both sweetened and un-sweetened - red beans in our Japanese grocery store (only one left in DC area).

The above picture is a classic Japanese sweet called "zenzai" ぜんざい or "O-shiruko" お汁粉 consisting of sweet azuki beans and grilled "mochi" rice cake. To my surprise, this was the best version of this dish I ever made. (Since this is the first time I ever made it "best" was not hard to achieve). But above and beyond that it was also the best I ever tasted. Granted, I've only ever eaten it a few times before and that was a long time ago. Even my wife agreed that this was the best she's eaten (she may actually have eaten some in Asakusa as recently as few years ago). If memory serves me correctly, the last time I had this dish was when I was in high school accompanying my classmate (sweetheart).....of course, back then this was something "girls" liked to eat. I recall it was sickeningly sweet and the only reason I ate it was because my classmate wanted some, not because I liked to eat "zenzai" )

In any case, a quick internet search revealed more than a few entries on how to cook azuki properly. I read a few of them and amalgamated them into the recipe I used. I think the secret was that I was careful not to make it too sweet.

Azuki beans look like this (image below left), I think I had about 1 pound. I washed and soaked the beans in plenty of water overnight. I cooked the beans on high flame using the water they soaked in. When the water came to a boil, I turned the flame down to a vigorous simmer (if such a term exists--it is just a tad below "gentle boil") for 10 minutes. I drained and washed the beans in cold running water. I put the beans back in the pot and added fresh cold water (3 times the volume of the beans). After the water started boiling I turned it down to a vigorous simmer. Small white bubbles or scum soon covered the surface, I skimmed it off repeatedly. If the water level went down too far, I added more hot water. After 30-40 minutes, it looks like this (image below right).  I tasted the beans, they were now soft. I set aside a portion of the simmering liquid and beans to use for other dishes, and continued making this dish. It appears important to add sugar in stages to keep the beans soft. So I added about 1/4 cup first. I cooked it for a while, tasted it (not sweet enough even for me) and add more sugar until I thought the sweetness was right (for me, that is. It must be a half of the recipe calls for). You could keep cooking to your desired consistency but I like it a bit soupy. I added a pinch (1/2 tsp) of salt at the end which supposedly enhances the sweetness.

I had some packaged mochi in the fridge left over from New Year. I cut the mochi into 4 small squares and toasted it in the toaster oven. (Since the mochi will become very sticky when cooked, I put the cubes on some aluminum foil). When it puffed up and browned slightly, I put it on the top of sweet azuki as see in the first picture.

My wife really liked this but said she would not consider it a dessert--Translation: "Do not attempt to serve this to me as a dessert.  If you would like to serve it as a starch side with the meal--perfectly acceptable".  In any case, I am planning to make some more savory dishes using azuki. No wine or sake will go well with this dish. "Bancha" 番茶 or "Hojicha" ほうじ茶, Japanese roasted tea will be the best bet as your choice of libation.

Hanger steak with port wine reduction and wasabi ハンガーステーキのポートワインバターソース山葵味

This was a celebration of sorts. We started the evening with my crab cakes (made from all jumbo lump crab meat without any assertive seasonings such as Tabsco or Jalapeno pepper this time). If I do say so myself, better crab cakes can not be had at any restaurant. (It is all in the quality of crab meat). We had this with a very crisp clean tasting California vintaged Sparkling wine, Mumm Napa Cuvee DVX 2001. We are partial to this wine, since it is connected to fond memories of our visit to the winery many years ago. We were club members at that time and one of the privileges of membership was free tasting samplers when we visited the winery. We spent a lovely afternoon, in Napa, on a spring day tasting samplers of sparkling wine overlooking the vineyard carpeted in the full bloom of bright yellow mustard flowers. Heaven!

The crab cake starter was followed by hanger steak with red wine vinegar, port wine reduction with real "wasabi".  This time I simply seasoned the hanger steak with Kosher salt and black pepper, seared it in a frying pan with olive oil and finished it in the oven to medium rare. I removed the steak to a plate loosely covered with an aluminum foil to rest. Meanwhile, I deglazed the "fond" with a small amount of red wine vinegar and reduced. I added port wine and again reduced. I poured back the jus accumulated on the plate where the meat was resting and finished it with pats of butter.  Off heat, I added a good amount of real Wasabi. You can see green specks on the steak in the picture above.

We opened a bottle from this year's shipment of Buccella 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon. We have been fans of Buccella wines for some time. They consistently produce a highly extracted quality wine. This vintage is no exception. It has complex black fruit upfront with dark chocolate and cinnamon notes with rather refined tannin. Perfect with the steak. Hanger steak is not as tender as tenderloin but may have more flavor. The real wasabi in the sauce gave a fresh note that was a bit like but different from horse radish. It added complexity and interest to the steak. This steak is best served sliced very thin--equipment alert: a really sharp steak knife may be required. This time I did not pre-slice the meat.

My wife served a small desert but at this point the details were fuzzy to me.

Stewed "Kakuni" Pork belly, the 3rd time is the charm 豚の角煮、三度目の正直！

As I mentioned, the new gourmet grocery store that recently opened near us has a much nicer meat section. To my delight, they had pork belly. I just had to try making this dish again with genuine pork belly. I have posted two previous attempts using salt pork and pork spare ribs. The pork spare rib version was better than the salt pork but finally I can try the "real McCoy" using pork belly.

As before I used this recipe by Atsushi Tsuchiya. I cut slightly more that one pound of pork belly (474 grams as seen below upper left) into 2 inch blocks. You can see how fatty the front portion of the belly meat is (below image upper right). I marinated it in soy sauce (4 tbs) (Image below lower left) for 10 minutes at room temperature. I then browned all sides of the pork in a sauce pan starting from the fatty side. I removed the meat and blotted the excess fat from the pan. I then put the meat and the remaining soy sauce from the marinade into the pan and turned the meat over to coat several times on medium low flame. I added sugar (20 grams) and sake (200 ml). After it simmered for 2-3 minutes and the alcohol evaporated, I added enough water to cover (about 200 ml) and covered the meat with hydrated kelp. I put a Piggy drop lid (otoshi buta) on the pan along with a regular lid (askew) and simmered it for 1 hour (below image lower right). I added more water as the liquid evaporated. I turned the meat over and simmered 2 more hours.

We tasted a little at this point--it was mighty good. I let it cool down to room temperature and then put it into the refrigerator. The next day, I removed the congealed fat from the surface and reheated.

I served it with blanched broccolini and thinly sliced scallion and a dab of Japanese hot mustard. The best part is the most fatty portion of the pork belly (you guessed it right!). It just melts in the mouth and is so sweet. The more meaty part is less tender. So for this dish, it is best to use pork belly and second best to use pork spare ribs. The only problem is that this is so incredibly good it must be lethal--so we should not be eating this too frequently. 

With this in mind we quickly and liberally self-medicated with red wine to counteract the effect of the pork fat. This was another vanilla-laden California Cab, Maxwell Creek Estate Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2008. The sweetness of the pork fat combined with the fruit forward and vanilla-laden cab was sublime! We will go back to enjoying more "subtle" and "austere" wines but this was a fun wine to sip. It was especially fun sitting outside in the sun on the deck enjoying perfect spring weather consuming pure pork fat.

Grilled branzini シーバスの焼き物

A new gourmet grocery store opened a few weeks ago. It is actually within walking distance. The store has been extremely popular, creating traffic jams and requiring police to direct traffic in and out of the underground parking garage. In any case, this has provided us with another venue to indulge our love of cooking--and eating. Among the other gourmet and international food items offered at the store are such "must haves" as ostrich and emu eggs (haven't tried them yet--still looking for recipes). The fish and meat sections are better than usual. Specifically they have whole fresh fish. The day we shopped, there were 5 kinds of whole fresh fish on display in large buckets packed with ice in front of the usual glass cases displaying fish fillets. At least we could smell and closely inspect the fish. We could have even touched them if we wanted but we hope not too many shoppers will do that. Among the five kinds offered, Branzini (or bronzini) looked best with nice clear eyes. Others such as large red snapper and black bass had cloudy eyes and did not look as good. Branzini is not a particularly interesting fish but we decided to get it.  Another name of Branzini is European sea bass. I suppose it is similar to Japanese sea bass or "suzuki" スズキ but to determine what is the Japanese equivalent and vise versa for fish is difficult, if not impossible.

We had it scaled and gutted but left the tail and head on (see below left). We like whole fish simply grilled on a charcoal fire. So, I just seasoned it with salt and pepper inside and out and stuffed the cavities with chopped fennel (including the feathery leaves), red onion, and slices of lemon a few hours before grilling (kept in the fridge). I cooked the fish on a direct hot charcoal fire (see below right) in a Weber kettle. I coated the skin with olive oil and used a special Weber-brand spray on the grill to prevent the skin from sticking.

I grilled the fish for 3-4 minutes per side covered with the lid half of the time to assure the meat was done before the skin got totally singed.

As you can see in the first image, I served it with spinach (briefly boiled, seasoned with soy sauce and bonito flakes wrapped in nori sheet and garnished with sesame seeds) and blanched broccolini with mustard soy sauce. I even did a decorative cut on the lemon (somewhat dated, about on par with that old warhorse sprigs of parsley garnish (not used here BTW, but, hey, it looks good).

Somehow, it is nice to have a whole fish. I just can not trust the freshness of filleted fish for one thing. Grilling fish with bone-in appears to add something and a fish head is always decorative (for Japanese particularly). Of course, the skin is always our favorite part.

Fried shishamo in sweet vinegar 揚げシシャモの甘酢漬け

This is a variation of "nanban" 南蛮, which is deep fried fish or meat marinated in sweet vinegar with red (hot) pepper and vegetable such as onion. Small fish such as "aji" 鯵 or Japanese jack mackerel is most commonly used but I posted one with chicken breast previously. Since I can not easily get aji, I used frozen "shishamo" シシャモ instead. This is a perfect small Izakaya dish which goes perfectly with sake.

Shishamo: I used the usual frozen kind (Capelin or "karafuto" shishamo). All had nice roe inside. Without defrosting, I dredged in potato flour and fried it in 370F peanut oil (I used the shallow frying technique) turning once for 5-7 minutes. After draining off the excess oil, I immediately soaked it in sweet vinegar marinade (see below).

Sweet vinegar: Sweet vinegar or "amazu" 甘酢 can be made ahead. It keeps a long time in the refrigerator. I put rice vinegar in a non-reactive (such as stainless steel or Pyrex) pan on low flame and added sugar (half the amount of vinegar, either by volume or weight, for example, one cup of vinegar and 1/2 of sugar) and a small amount (I used 1/3 tsp but could be more) salt. Stir and make sure the sugar is completely dissolved and let it come to a boil (called "nikiru" 煮きる), this makes the vinegar mellow. Let it cool down and put it in a plastic or glass container and keep it in the refrigerator. This can be used for many other recipes.

Marinade: I mixed sweet vinegar (2/3 cup), dashi (1/4 cup), mirin and soy sauce (1 tbs each). I added thinly sliced red onion and julienne carrot the night before. You can do this part a few days ahead. I like the veggies to marinated at least several hours or longer. To make it truly "nanban" you add red pepper flakes but I did not this time.

While the fried shishamo is still hot, I put it in the marinade with the vegetables already in. I cover the fish with marinated vegetables and let it marinate for at least 10 minutes or longer. I served it with the vinegared onion and carrot on the top.

We had this with cold sake (our house sake Yaegaki "mu"). I think sake or beer will go with this dish well but the acidity of the dish does not agree with wine. Of course every part of the fish  including head, bone and tail is eaten in this dish. "Waste not want not" never tasted so good.

Chicken wings simmered in soy sauce and vinegar 手羽の酢醤油煮

This is another variation on the ever popular bar/Izakaya chicken wing dish. I bought a package of chicken wings that had six wings in it. I removed the drumetts and used them to make  "curry flavored baked chicken drumetts". I made this dish from the remaining chicken wing tips but we did not eat it immediately. I reheated it the following evening. Although simmering (with or without vegetable) is a rather common Japanese way to cook chicken wings, I have not made this dish. I suggested this dish to my wife several times but my description of it did not elicit an ounce of enthusiasm. So I kept making baked, deep dried, or grilled wings with crispy skin instead.  This time, I showed my wife the picture from the Otsumami Yokocho Page 55 and convinced her to try this dish so that I could also blog about it. (I think the blogging ploy is what actually swayed her and she consented to eat the wings if I made them). I did not follow the recipe (for the simmering liquid) in Otsumami Yokocho thinking that it would be way too sweet for us. Instead, I used the same concoction I use to make poached chicken breast.

This dish is actually rather simple. For two small servings, I used 6 chicken wings after drumetts were removed.

Simmering liquid: Most of the recipes including Otsumami Yokocho's used either sugar or honey but I used mirin instead. I made a mixture of soy sauce, mirin, and black vinegar (Japanese style lighter kind or you could use regular rice vinegar or balsamic vinegar) (1/4 cup each or in equal amounts). I added ginger (several thin slivers) and garlic (one small clove, crushed). 

Cooking: In a small pan in which all six wings snugly fit, I poured the simmering liquid. It should just cover the wings. Initially, I put the pan on medium-high flame. As soon as it boiled, I tuned it down to simmer. (If any scrum forms on the surface, skim it off).  I put an otoshi-buta on the pot (Instead of a wooden lid, I used a newly acquired silicon lid called "pig cooking lid"*) and a regular tight fitting lid on the top. I simmered it for 30 minutes (turning once in the middle). After 30 minutes, I let it cool down to room temperature in the liquid.

*Digression alert: This silicon lid has a face of a pig with two small holes of the nostrils as steam vents and two ears as knobs to hold the lid. Japanese for lid is "futa" 蓋 but when you make a composit word with "Otoshi" meaning "to drop" in front, it will change to "buta" ("f" to "b" which is called "dakuon" 濁音) as in "Otoshi-buta" 落とし蓋. "Buta" 豚 also means "pig" in Japanese. So this is a whimsical "puny" product and works well.

Seasoned eggs: I also made seasoned eggs or 味付け卵. For this, I simply made soft boiled eggs (cooked for 8 minutes in simmering water). I used pasteurized eggs since I wanted to keep the yolks still a bit runny. I simply added the boiled eggs (shells off, of course) to the room temperature simmering liquid along with the chicken wings. You could serve the chicken wings and eggs after soaking the eggs in the simmering liquid for 30 minutes or so but I put the pan into the refrigerator at this point to eat it the next day.

The next evening, when I opened the pot I found that the liquid was completely jelled. This is because of all the collagen and protein that came from the chicken while it simmered. The liquid had become aspic or "nikogori" 煮凝り in the refrigerator. The surface also was thinly covered with chicken fat. Using a spoon, I scraped off all the visible fat from the surface and put the pan on the lowest flame to warm up. It's not necessary to boil it, just gently heat it to make the jelled liquid warm so it melts.

This was a bit messy to eat since you have to use your fingers but it was wonderful. The skin is totally different from the skin of grilled or baked chicken wings. It is very soft, unctuous with a nice smooth texture and taste. As Japanese often say, it has a lots of collagen and your skin will feel smooth after eating this. The egg was also wonderful (although soaked in seasoning liquid from pork pot roast may be slightly more flavorful). This also passed the "Mikey likes it" test with my wife. She expressed a great deal more enthusiasm than when I suggested making the dish. She ate every bit and then asked if there was any more. She suggested I make this dish again and in a much larger quantity. She also suggested I add red (hot) paper flakes (I was not expecting this kind of suggestion from her).

We started this evening with my potato salad (I used red onion this time) as an otoushi お通し.

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.