Pork Cutlet curry with rice カツカレー

This is another Japanese invention of "Yoshoku" 洋食 or Japanese-style Western (not cowboy Western) dish. Japanese like anything "curry" and put curry sauce even on noodles such as udon. This dish,"Katsu curry" is Japanese-style curry with rice which is topped with a cutlet of pork chop or "tonkatsu" トンカツ. This is a rather high-fat and high-calorie dish. I decided to make this dish one weekday evening since I had leftover curry sauce I made on the prior weekend and frozen pork chops in our freezer which, I deemed, were "aged" enough.

Curry: I made the curry sauce in a similar maner as I posted before using S&B brand mild curry roux. the only difference was that the amount of sauce I need to prepare (we had guests) was more than one package of the roux could handle. I supplemented the packaged amount with my own brown roux (olive oil and flour, onion, and Japanese curry powder). The vegetables included potatoes (small red new potatoes), carrots, and onion. It originally contained chicken thighs.

Pork cutlet: (This was made from pork chops I had sliced from the whole loin of pork and froze immediately some time ago). After I seasoned the pork chops with salt and black pepper, I dredged with flour, coated with egg water and Japanese panko crumbs. This time, instead of deep frying I shallow fried (half inch of peanut oil) (left in the image below). I cooked them on medium-low heat for 5-6 minutes on each side or until done. According to a French cook, Madeline, if you freeze pork for 21 days or longer, there is no more danger of contracting cysticercosis or pork tape worm even from undercooked pork. Althouhg my pork chops were safe by the Madeline's criteria, I was not taking a chance here and made sure the pork was fully cooked.

There are many different ways to serve the pork cutlet in this dish (on the top of curry and rice, additional curry sauce on the top, with shredded cabbage underneath, etc) but I just put the rice with side of regular Japanese condiments of pickled cocktail onion or "rakkyo" ラッキョウ and mixed pickled vegetable, "fukushinzuke" 福神漬け as you see above and then placed the cutlet of pork chops (pre sliced) on the side (the first picture).

My wife did not see the point of combining curry and rice with pork cutlet. She prefered eating the cutlet separately. So, I added Japanese hot mustard and "Tokatsu" sauce on the rim of the plate as well.

We had this with a very unususal and good Italian red from Umbria called Sportoletti Rosso Villa Fidelia 2008. This is a Bordeaux blend (Merlot and Cab Saub) of Italian wine. This one had lots of fruit upfront and was remarkably good. It tasted like a Bordeaux blend from Napa (coming from us, this is a compliment). This one also got 93 from Wine Advocate. I wonder, though, whether this is meant for export (especially to the U.S.) rather than for domestic consumption in Italy.

Mixed mushroom stir fry with "shiokara" squid しめじとエリンギの炒め物塩辛いり

This is another example of making something out of whatever is available. I made a stir fry of three mushrooms and added squid "shiokara" 塩辛 or "squid and guts" to add interest. I had a combo package of three mushrooms which included white and brown clamshell (shimeji しめじ) and royal trumpet (simialr to eryngii エリンギ) as seen in the bottom picture (#1). I bought this at least one week ago and needed to use it quickly. Although these mushrooms, especially royal trumpet, will last a long time, aging does not improve the flavor. In addtion, I found a small pouch of "shiokara" or fermented squid and guts leftover in the refrigerator, which was thawed sometime ago. I checked it and it was still Ok but moving past its prime. So, the combination of these two ingredients culminated in this quick dish.

Mushrooms: I separated the white and brown clamshell mushrooms at the root end (left half in #1). I cut into the end of the royal trumpet and tore it into two or four pieces depending on the size the mushroom. (#2).

I first sautéed a shallot (one medium, thinly sliced) in olive oil and dark sesame oil (1 tbs) on medium high flame for s few minutes until soft and slightly browned. I then added the mushrooms. After an additional few minutes of sautéing, I added garlic (one small clove, finely chopped). When the garlic became fragrant I added sake (1 tbs) mirin (1 tbs), and soy sauce (1/2 tbs) and put on a tight-fitting lid and turned down the flame to let it steam for several minutes.

After the liquid was almost all gone (#3), I added "shiokara" squid and guts (2 tsp) and quickly mixed in then cut the flame (#3). After cooking, the volume of the mushrooms reduced quite a bit and the amount was just perfect for two small servings (#4).

I further garnished it with chopped chives and sprinkles of Japanese 7 favored red pepper powder or Shichi-mi tougarashi 七味唐辛子. This was a good dish for cold sake but, to me, it was too sweet (from the mirin and sautéed shallot). The addition of shiokara gave some saltiness and subtle and interesting sea food (or "fishy" if you prefer) flavor. I am not sure adding shiokara was particularly successful. Next time, I may stick to more simple butter and soy sauce with sake to make this dish.

Chicken cutlet 鶏のカツレツ

This is not blogworthy but I needed a padding post. When I made tsukune, I reserved the nicest solid pieces of meat from the chicken thighs with all the fat and small muscle removed (skin off) after using the rest to make hand chopped ground chicken. I just placed them in a small Ziploc bag smothered in sake for later use. We found that marinading the chicken (or other meat for that matter) with sake makes it last longer and tenderizes it. I made this dish one evening.

I seasoned the chicken thigh meat with salt and pepper. Dredged with flour, egg water and panko bread crumbs.  Instead of deep frying, I shallow fried with not more than 3 tbs of oilve oil in a small (8 inch) frying pan. I fried it in medium-low flame for few minutes on each side until just done. I served this with tonkatsu sauce with Japanese hot mustard, my wife's baked cauliflower, olive and chick peas, mushed baked butternut squash (with butter and honey added). These are just a simple good combination. 

We had this with a very unusual Spanish wine made of 100% cabernet frank, Bodegas Los Aljibes Castilla Leon Cabernet Franc 2007. This one got 93 from Wine Advocate. I am not a big fan of Cab frank especially 100% cab frank. I am not sure I would give 93 for this wine. For me it is 89-90. Nevertheless, this food and wine combination was certainly nice enough for a weekday.

Braised "kinpira" lotus root 蓮根の金平

When I made chicken "tsukune" つくね patties with chopped lotus root or renkon 蓮根, I made this dish from whatever lotus root was leftover. I usually slice lotus root across so that it looks like a round with multiple concetric holes. I decided to cut it differently this time to make it really crunchy and made "kinpira" 金平 or braised lotus root. 

Lotus root or renkon: Since it is nearly impossible to get fresh renkon, I usually get cleaned and boiled lotus root which is vacuum packed. Actually, it is much easier to prepare and the texture remains quite good and crunchy. I first cut the lotus root across in 2 inch or so segments. Then cut the segments into thick (1/2 inch) pieces along the long axis. I then cut, again, along the long axis to make thick battons like you see above. I used about 3/4 of the one package of renkon which yielded 2 servings.

Kinpira reparation is the same as before. I first sautéed the rekon for few minutes in a vegetable oil (1/2 tbs) with a splash of sesame oil. I sprinkled on Japanese 7 flavored red pepper powder 七味唐辛子．I then braised it by adding sake (1 tbs), mirin (1 tbs) and soy sauce (1-2 tbs) until the liquid was almost all gone. I garnished it with roasted white sesame seeds. 

Compared to the more classic burdock root kinpira, this has a better nice crunchy texture but burdock root has a more nutty earthy flavor. This was served with tsukune with chopped renkon. 

Chicken "tsukune" with lotus root; two ways 蓮根入り鶏のつくね、２種類

I posted two versions of chicken patties or "tsukune" before. There are many variations to the recipe. Some put egg, grated nagaimo or yamaimo, chopped up chicken cartilage, shiitake mushroom etc. We do not particulary like having bits of cartilage in the meat. Instead, to add an interesting texture contrast, I added finely chopped lotus root or renkon 蓮根. The renkon bits do give some crunch but not like cartilage or bone bits.

Tsukune mixture: I hand chopped to make ground chicken from thighs (2 large) but of course you could just buy ground chicken or use a food processor. I like to use thigh meat with a bit of fat. I mixed in finely chopped onion (1/2 small), ground ginger (1/4 tsp), sliced and chopped lotus root (1/4 of vacuum packed pre-boiled), yuzu-kosho (1/2 tbs or more). As I mentioned, one could add more ingredients such as ground nagaimo or yamaimo, tofu, beaten egg etc. Using the same mixture I cooked it in two ways.

In the first version, I spread the meat mixture on the square (1/4 of full nori sheet) of nori and fried it--meat side first and then nori-side. Dishes with nori involved often include a word "seashore" or "Isobe" 磯辺. So this is "Isobe" grilled chicken patty. I made an equal mixture of mirin and soy sauce and added it to the pan towards the end of cooking and coated the chicken patties. After removing the patties from the pan, I further reduced the sauce until it was rather thick and put back the patties to coat. I sprinkled Japanese "sansho" 山椒 powder. I served this with "kinpira" or braised lotus root (This was made from the remaining lotus root, a subject for another post). I should have taken pictures with this dish turned over to show the piece of nori.

 The next day using the same mixture, I made the tuskune in the regular way (pan fried and then braised in mirin and soy sauce) and served it with celery salad with powdered kelp or "kobucha" 昆布茶 and olive oil.

The Addition of lotus root and yuzu-kosho made this tsukune pretty good. I like grilled yakitori style tsukue best but when you cannot grill, pan frying like this is also excellent.

Chicken skin simmered in miso 雛皮の味噌煮

I made Nagaimo pancake or "Tororo-yaki" after reading the izakaya blog by Mr. Hamada, who is a semi-professional Izakaya goer. Although he has a day job, several Izakaya books (either authored or edited) are under his belt and he appears in Japanese magazines occasionally discussing Izakaya.  He goes to Izakaya almost every night (of course more than one Izakaya or bar on a given night) in Kure 呉, near Hiroshima 広島市 and Tokyo. I get vicarious enjoyment reading his blog. This is another dish I saw in his blog. I just surmised how it was made from his description of chicken skin in miso but I have no idea if what I made is even close. In any case, this was the first small dish I made for dinner on the weekend.  My wife and I thought this was great (An appropriate Japanese expression for this will be "Jiga Jisan" 自画自賛  meaning "praising your own painting").

Another reason I made this was that I had 4 chicken thighs. I hand chopped the meat and made a portion of the chopped meat into a Japanese style chicken patty dish called tsukune (left upper in the image below). I made the other portion into chicken cutlets (both will be posted). Since I had the skin left over, rather than throwing it out, I decided to make it into this dish. It is a very lowly dish since chicken skin is almost free but requires some preparation. I first boiled the skins in water with a bit of sake for 10 minutes. I then washed them in cold running water. Using a sharp knife, I scraped off any stubbles of feathers and excess fat from the skin. I then cut the skin into a inch wide strips and skewered them as seen in the right upper of the image below).

I put the skewers of chicken skin in a frying pan with fresh water and a splash of sake, slices of ginger and scallion as seen in the left lower of the iamge above and simmered it for 20 minutes or so with the lid on. I removed the scallion and ginger. At this point, the liquid is less than 1/4 cup. I disolved miso (1 tsp), sugar (1/2 tsp), sprinkled Japanese 7-flavored red pepper 七味唐辛子 and simmered for another 20 minutes (right lower in the image above) with the lid on. When the miso broth got thick I removed the skewers and lid and reduced it a bit further until it formed a thick sauce.

This required a lot of prep work but the end result was quite satisfying. The pepper really made the dish by providing a zing that cut through the richness of the skin and sauce. I am not sure how this compares with the original but it is a nice dish to start. It is quite a contrast to grilled chicken skin which is also very common yakitori 焼き鳥 affair.

Baked green bean and carrot with tofu dressing インゲンと人参の白和え

This is another quick dish. When I made steamed tofu stuffed with shrimp and shiitake mushroom, I was left with 5-6 tea spoonfuls of tofu from the area I scooped out to make space for the shrimp stuffing. Using this extra portion of tofu, I made "shira-ae" dressing. "Shira-ae" 白和え means "white dressing". It is usually made with tofu, sesame, soy sauce and sugar, I made this with tofu, miso and mirin.

For the vegetable, I used baked green beans and carrots which my wife made over the weekend. She just coated the vegetables with olive oil, spreaded them out in a single layer on a cookie sheet seasoned with salt and baked in a 350F oven for 30 minutes. Baking vegetables makes them much sweeter than steaming or boiling them. 

Shira-ae dressing: I just mixed tofu (5-6 tsp), miso (1 tsp), and mirin (few tsp or add until the consistency is just right).

It took only a few minutes to whip up this dish. If I used a pestle and mortar like a Japanese surikogi 擂り粉木 and suribachi すり鉢, the tofu dressing would have been smoother but I was too lazy at this point. This is healthy and nice dish.