Sake steamed chicken and avocado 酒蒸し鶏肉とアボカドのピリ辛和え

This is another padding post but is a quick and nice drinking snack in the true spirit of Izakaya food as long as you have a cooked chicken and ripe avocado. As I mentioned in another post, roast pork tenderloin and microwaved sake steamed chicken are regulars in our refrigerator.

The idea for this dish came from tuna and avocado cubes.  I just sliced the cooked chicken breast with skin attached and quartered the avocado slicing it into pieces on the slant. 

For sauce, I mixed grated garlic (1 small clove), garlic chile paste (1/4 tsp), sesame oil (1/2 tsp), ponzu shouyu (1 tsp) and semi congealed liquid from the container where the chicken breast was kept (1 tbs).

I am really fond of microwave sake steamed chicken breast. It is so easy to make and is a nice thing to have in the refrigerator which can be used many different ways. The sauce really makes this dish come alive. The spiciness combined with the tender texture of the chicken juxtaposed to the texture and taste of the avocado makes this dish much more than the sum of its parts.

This dish will go well with any drink but we were having cold sake with this.

Nagaimo pancake トロロ焼き

Since we do not have easy access to an Izakaya, I check Izakaya blogs to get vicarious enjoyment out of their reports. I saw this dish called "tororo-yaki" in one such Izakaya blog that the author found when drinking in an "Okonomiyaki" place. ("Tororo" is the name for grated yamaimo or nagaimo). Japanese pancake or "okonomiyaki" お好み焼き is not one of our favorites. For us, it tends to be too heavy and with so many ingredients all mixed together the taste is muddy--like the color you get when you mix all the colors in the paint box together. But, this one looked very interesting and I decided to try it. While the aforementioned blog, described the dish and included pictures of the final product including each step showing how to cook it, the blog did not include the recipe per se. So if I wanted to taste the dish I just had to come up with the recipe--as I imagined it must have been made.

The first pictures above shows the final product. I topped it with cheese (picture directly above) and added dried bonito shavings or "katsuobushi" 鰹節 (top picture). I served it cut into 4 pieces using a pizza cutter and with a little of soy sauce.

I surmised the original recipe may have used "mountain yam" 山芋 but I only had the domesticated version called "Nagaimo" 長芋. Since nagaimo is not as sticky as yamaimo and a bit more watery, I decided to mix in an egg.

I grated the nagaimo (about 1 cup) and mixed in soy sauce (1 tsp) (#1). I then added one beaten egg and poured it in a non-stick frying pan with a small amount of vegetable oil (1 tbs) on a medium flame (#2). When the bottom was set, I spread finely chopped scallion on top (3 stalks) (#3). Using a spatula, I started folding the edges toward the center all around (#4). After several minutes, I flipped the pancake until both sides were brown (#5). I placed three slices of smoked aged cheddar cheese on top (my wife's choice) and put the lid on for another 1-2 minutes until the cheese melted (#6).

I placed the pancake on the bed of baby arugula and spread shaved bonito flakes with a bit of soy sauce.

This is a very interesting dish--in a good way. The center was still soft and the scallion flavor was well integrated. It had the mouth feel of the most tender-delicate french omelet you've ever tasted and yet it was very clearly not an omelet.  My wife's choice of smoked cheddar added depth of flavor and almost a sense of barbecue that went surprisingly well with the bonito. We really liked this dish and cold sake was the perfect choice.

Microwave sake steamed chicken with black vinegar gelée and myouga マイクロウェイブ酒蒸し鶏胸肉とミョウガの黒酢ジェレー

This is another nothing quick dish but a perfect Izakaya food. Recently, I have been making sake steamed chicken breast by microwaving chicken in a silicon steamer for microwave. I usually do not cook anything in the microwave (just re-heat), so this is new development for me. But if precisely timed and allowed to rest for 10 minutes or longer, the chicken comes out perfectly and cleaning up is much simpler.

Here is how I do it. I usually get bone-in and skin-on split chicken breasts. I remove the bones (do not leave the wish bone behind) and tenderloins (use for another dish). I remove any excess skin and fat but I keep the skin. Keeping the skin makes the chicken moist during the microwaving. If you like the skin, you could leave the skin or remove the skin after cooking. After removing excess fat from the cooked skin, I cut it in thin strips and use it in salad etc but this is totally up to you.

In any case, I placed two half breasts in a silicon microwave steamer after somewhat liberally salting both sides.  I then added slices of ginger root, and scallion (two stalks lightly bruised). I poured sake (3-4 tbs) (image below left) and put on the lid (image below right) and microwaved it for 5 minutes and 30 seconds (Mine is 600W, please adjust the time depending on the power of your microwave).

I let it steam in the container with the lid on after I remove it from the microwave. Some times, as it cools, the silicon container may buckle since the lid is rather tight. I place the container on a plate to prevent possible spillage (Spillage has not happened to me so far). When the chicken cools down enough so that you can handle it safely (10-15 minutes), you can use it in whatever dish you like.

This time, I had fresh myouga 茗荷. So I halved and thinly sliced the myouga. I also made jabara cucumber. I sliced the chicken after removing the skin. I scraped off any excess fat from the back of the skin and cut it in thin strips. I put the strips of skin on the top of the chicken slices resting on a base of baby arugula. I sprinkled yuzu-souyu sauce (from the bottle) and garnished with small chuncks of black vinegar/soy sauce gelee (top image).

I think the chicken turned out better than the conventional way of sake steaming. Few important tips include finding out the exact timing, getting equal sized half breasts which will snuggly fit in the silicon steamer, and letting it steep in the container with the lid on until cool. Before I got the timing right, I undercooked and overcooked it few times. Now this is so easy and quick to make. Once I made the chicken this way, I keep it in a sealed container in the refrigerator and make small Izakaya dishes and sandwiches. The liquid left in the container is also very flavorful and lightly congeals in the fridge. You coudl just coat the slices of chicken with it or add it to you sauce, which adds wonderful mouth feel and flavor.

Soba Salad そばサラダ

This is not really a "dish" but nice small drinking snack or even a small "shime" 締め ending dish. This also was leftover control. There is no recipe but this is how I put it together,

The amount is for two small servings. I had leftover flat iron steak which I used for several other dishes. I thinly sliced across that grain (4-5 slices per serving). I then marinated it with a small amount of concentrated (x2) bottled Japanese noodle sauce called "mentsuyu" 麺つゆ from the bottle without diluting. Of course, you could make your own.

I cooked half a serving of dried soba noodles. The one I had was called "yamaimo-iri" meaning containing mountain yam as a binder. This soba was nicely firm after cooking as per package instruction. I threw in sugar snaps (hand full, may be 10) toward the end of cooking the soba. I had to fish them out and put them in cold water before the soba finished cooking. If you time it correctly, you could drain the sugar snaps together with the soba. I washed the soba in cold running water.

I placed the soba noodle in the bottom of a small bowl, placed the steak slices, sprinkled Japanese 7 flavored red pepper flakes 七味唐辛子 on the top, and garnished with sugar snaps, chiffonade of perilla, and nori. Other garnish choices may include scallion and dried bonito flakes.

For sauce, I simply diluted "mentsuyu" and poured it over from around the sides (not too much).

This is a very decent dish. We really liked this type of soba noodle. It has nice firm texture but not too brittle. For my usual instant preparation, this is indeed in keeping with the spirit of Izakaya food.

Baked marinated tofu redux ピリ辛豆腐のオーブン焼き 第２弾

When I posted baked marinated tofu, I promised I would try it with frozen and thawed tofu. Here is the dish.

Tofu: I used firm tofu and froze it 24 hours in a freezer without taking it out of the package. The next day, I moved the frozen tofu to the refrigerator. It took two days to completely thaw. After that, I drained any excess moisture as I did with a regular tofu.

The marinade was the same as before and cooked it in identical fashion.

The result? I do not like the very dry and spongy texture that results from this method. The texture is different from more authentic freeze dried tofu called "shimidoufu" 凍み豆腐 or "kouyadoufu" 高野豆腐. My wife liked this version more than I did. Certainly I do not think this is worth the effort.

Japanese Insalata Caprese 日本風カプレーゼサラダ

The title is a bit of stretch. This is a combination of miso marinated fresh mozzarella cheese, thin slices of tomato, perilla leaves and grilled miso.

The mozzarella cheese was marinated for a week (we just forgot we had this) in the mixture of miso and mirin as described before. I scraped off the miso marinade and sliced it.

I used a sharp knife to remove the tomato skin (but I could have blanched it first). To make it more attractive, I made it to a "rose". If you are interested in making a tomato rose or flower, here is the instruction with pictures (in Japanese).

Grilled miso: I simply smeared the miso marinade in a thin layer in a porcelain spoon and held it over the gas fire for few minutes until the surface became brown and the miso was fragrant.

We smeared a bit of the grilled miso on the slice of cheese and layered it with a small piece of perilla and a slice of tomato like insalat caprese. We really liked this combination of flavors. My wife really liked the miso and even ate a portion of miso I did not eat. That night, however, she was very very thirsty.

Japanese style coleslaw with hot-smoked pork tenderloin 日本風コールスローと豚ヒレ肉の薫製焼き

Since my wife does not particularly like raw shredded cabbage, I usually end up making variations of coleslaw when I'm in the mood to eat some cabbage. I am not sure where I got the idea of adding raisins to coleslaw but I must have eaten coleslaw made that way in Japan. In any case, this is another quick snack made from whatever was available to go with a drink. The previous weekend, we barbecued (hot smoked) pork tenderloin (seasoned with chopped rosemary, black pepper and salt) which I have been using for sandwiches etc. This is the last of this pork. It has a spicy taste from both the smoke and black pepper.

Coleslaw: As a side, I quickly made this Japanese (I am not sure it is a Japanese or whatever) style coleslaw. I julienned cabbage after removing the thick veins. I then salted, mixed, and let it stand for 10 minutes and squeezed out the excess moisture. Meanwhile I plumped some raisins in a mixture of white vermouth and hot water (about a one to one ratio) for 5-10 minutes. I added mayonnaise and Dijon mustard to the cabbage. I tasted and added freshly cracked black pepper but no more salt (it was salty enough). I removed the excess liquid from the raisins and mixed them into the cabbage.

Pork: After I thinly sliced it, I dressed it with semi-thick "tonkatsu" sauce and Japanese hot mustard mixture.

As usual, I also added a drunken tomato. This is again nothing dish but rather spicy taste of pork went well with this coleslaw. The raisins added a nice sweet taste.

This was followed by marinated tuna "sashimi". Instead of the usual side of daikon garnish, I made an instant "diakon" namasu, dressed in a mixture of mirin and sushi vinegar, and served it with the fine chopped meat of umeboshi or "bainiku" 梅肉 on the top.

Again, we had cold sake. This time we tasted "junmai" sake from Kyoto, Kizakura 黄桜 Touzai Living Jewel. This is from a large sake brewery but made from Yamada nishiki. It is a light but nicely fruity and rather easy-to-drink sake, perfect for hot summer days, best chilled ice cold.