Crostini with pesto and sundried tomato ペストとサンドライドトマトのクロスティニ

We have a potted basil plant growing at our house. I bought it to provide a continuous supply of fresh basil during the winter. Since it became rather lanky and started flowering, I decided it was time to harvest most of the leaves. My theory is that these annual plants die after flowering no matter how much sun and water are available to them. But I left two branches since my wife’s theory is that it may survive the winter (as of this posting it still hasn’t died…could my wife be right?) Faced with a large amount of  fresh basil leaves, the only thing I could do was make pesto. One evening, I used the pesto I made as a sort-of crostini with sundried tomato.
My pesto is nothing special but I do not add garlic since I keep this for one week or so in the refrigerator. Raw garlic in an olive oil mixture may not be safe (it may have a risk of botulism). Also when I use this in our sandwiches for lunch, I do not want garlic. If needed, I add crushed garlic to the pesto just before I use it. This time my wife made baked garlic and I am adding this (much milder) before using my pesto.
I did not measure anything but this is the amount of fresh basil leaves I harvested (#1). I dry roasted the pine nuts in a dry frying pan until slightly browned and oil started coming out on the surface (#2) and set them aside to cool. I added the basil leaves, the pine nuts, grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese into the cuisineart. I added good fruity olive oil as I pulsed the machine (#3). I tasted it and seasoned it with salt and pepper. I placed it in sealable containers. This should last at least one week in the fridge and much longer in the freezer.

For crostini, I first toasted the slices of baguette. dripped small amount of olive oil on the bread, smeared on the pesto, add more grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese.  I toasted it again briefly and added sundried tomato on the top (I should have used oil packed rather than dry). The crostini was good and went very well with our red wine.

Crispy nagaimo "isobe" fry 長芋のカリカリ磯辺焼き

I had half a small nagaimo 長芋 left. I previously posted quite a few ways to prepare nagaimo . So I decided to do something a bit different. I remembered seeing recipes similar to this on the internet but the details are probably different since I just made this dish from memory without looking for the original recipe. Essentially, this is a pan-fried nagaimo. Instead of using the usual butter and soy sauce or salt, I made a breading with panko, dried powdered seaweed or "aonori" 青海苔 and also added grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese. Just for kicks, I served it with mayonnaise-Sriracha (the yellow stuff shown in the picture below) and my home-made pesto.



I first peeled and cut the nagaimo into 1/4 inch thick medallions (#1). I mixed panko (3tsp), aonori (1 tsp), Parmigiano Reggiano cheese (grated, 3 tbs), salt (1/2 tsp), and black pepper (to taste). I put this mixture in a Ziploc bag added the nagaimo and shook the bag to coat the nagaimo medallions (#2). To a non-stick frying pan, I added light olive oil (1/2 tbs) on low flame. I fried one side for 5 minutes (or longer) without moving or touching the pieces (I leave them alone to prevent the forming crust from breaking). Once a nice brown crust formed I flipped them over and fried the other side for another 5 minutes (#4).



I decided to make some dipping sauces; one is a mixture of mayonnaise with Sriracha (or any hot sauce) and the other is a pesto sauce I made some days ago.
The cooked nagaimo is quite different from raw or grated nagaimo. The slimy surface almost disappears. The crust has lots of flavor and a crispy texture. The nagaimo itself has nice firm crunch. For sauce, we liked the mayonnaise/Sriracha the best.

Baked crepes in Béchamel sauce クレープのホワイトソース オーブン焼き

Since I had leftovers from the large batch of crepes I made, I came up with two near near-identical dishes to have with wine in the evening. One was made with my leftover roasted pork filet (below). I served it with cucumber and onion salad with yogurt sauce. I also made a similar dish using my (leftover) sake-steamed chicken breast. I took only one picture of the chicken dish after it came out of the oven (the last picture) but I forgot to take pictures of the final plated product. So this time, I made a point of taking a few more pictures including some of the final dish. Both dishes are almost identical. The differences are types of cheeses and meat I used. 
Essentially, I made a Béchamel sauce starting with sautéing finely chopped shallots and shiitake mushroom adding flour, sautéed them together for few minutes. I added milk at once and stir until the sauce thickened. I seasoned it with salt , white pepper and freshly ground nutmeg as posted before. I then added cubes of sake steamed chicken or roasted pork filet and sautéed spinach into the  Béchamel sauce. I placed a small portion of this mixture on the crepes (#1) and rolled them into a tube. I placed these stuffed crepes in a small baking pan (#2) and covered them with the remaining Béchamel  sauce. I covered this with grated smoked cheddar and parmigeano reggiano cheeses. I baked it in a 350F oven for 10-15 minutes.
 
I used a mix of grated smoked Gruyere and cheddar cheese on the dish I made with the sake-steamed chicken (below).
For both dishes, I let it rest for 5 minutes before serving.This was a nice dish to have with wine. It was also extremely satisfying—bordering on comfort food (how could it be anything else with a nice Béchamel sauce and melted cheese). Although I do not remember exactly which wine we had with this, I am sure, one of our favorite reds.

Stuffed crepes 沢山具入りクレープ

After making a batch of crepes, we had quite a lot left over. I made this stuffed crepe one morning for breakfast.

Stuffing: Actually, I do not remember precisely what I did. I am sure this is thinly sliced onion, fresh shiitake mushroom, left over roasted pork, all sautéed together and seasoned with salt and pepper. I placed the crepe on a cookie sheet and then put the stuffing and cheese (My guess is either smoked gouda or gruyere  on top. I folded the crepe over the filling and put them into a 350 degree oven for 10-15 minutes or until they were heated through and the cheese melted.

Compared to omelet, the crepes added a more interesting texture and a faint vanilla flavor that actually works. Of course, my justification for posting this is “any good hearty breakfast will be a good alcohol-soaking ending dish after indulgence”.

Crepe クレープ

We may have to change our blog title from “Izakaya” to “Breakfast”. This is another suggestion for breakfast from my wife. We had our share of pancakes especially in the summer when blueberries are in season. For this crepe, instead of cheese fillings such as Mascarpone, she suggested Greek yogurt flavored with Clementine orange.

Here is the crepe we had one weekend.

Next weekend, we had similar crepe but with a slight variation.

As usual, my wife made the batter and I cooked the pancakes.

Ingredients for crepe batter:
3/4 cup All purpose flour
1/2 Tsp. salt
1 Tsp. double-acting baking powder
2 Tbs. sugar
2 Eggs
2/3 cup milk
1/3 cup water
1/2 Tsp. vanilla
grated lemon rind

Sift together the flour, salt and baking powder and set aside. Mix together the sugar, eggs, milk, water and vanilla (make sure the sugar dissolves completely). Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients.

Although some recipes call for resting the batter for 5 to 6 hrs or overnight (I suppose to relax the gluten and make tender crepes), we did not do this since we were rather hungry. Add more milk or water to get proper runny consistency.

Since we do not have a special crepe pan, rake or a crepe machine, I just used our non-stick frying pan. I preheated the frying pan for few minutes and added light olive oil (the amount of oil has to be just enough to coat the bottom). When it started to shimmer (but not smoke), it is the opportune time to add the batter. The batter has to be runny enough to spread very thin and the pan has to be hot enough that the batter can be spread thinly but the portion in contact with the bottom of pan immediately starts cooking. I tilted and turned the pan to spread the batter. I took the pan on and off heat to get the right heat level (#1). When the surface looked dry, I flipped the crepe using a spatula (#2). This definitely requires some practice. Just 10-15 seconds on the last side and the crepe was done (#3). I stacked them up on the plate (#4).

Yogurt sauce:
Greek yogurt (or regular yogurt drained using cheese cloth in the refrigerator over night)
Clementine orange, peeled and cut up in small chunks
Juice of the orange, add sugar to taste

This is quite good for a relatively low fat recipe. The original recipe calls for a mixture of Mascarpone flavored with fresh orange/orange juice as the stuffing but Greek yogurt and Clementine are good substitutes. You just can’t beat the texture and lovely mouth feel of a crepe. The mild vanilla flavor of the crepe went very well with the orange flavored yogurt.

Fluffy Omelet ふわふわオムレツ

My wife is really into breakfast recently. Every weekend, she suggests something different. This weekend morning, she saw this fluffy omelet  recipe in the printed version of "Cook illustrated" and asked me to come up with the topping (or stuffing) for it. Although the recipe included two examples of stuffing, we did not have the ingredients for either of them. So I decided to "wing-it". This is something between Spanish "Tortilla" and French "soufflé".

Ingredients for one 8 inch omelet:

For Omelet:

Eggs (two large, yolk and white separated)

Butter, Melted unsalted (1/2 tbs)

Butter, unsalted (1/2 tbs)

Salt (1/8 tsp)

Cream of tartar (1/8 tsp)

For stuffing:

Shallot (1 medium, finely chopped)

Shiitake mushroom (fresh, two medium, stem removed and finely sliced).

Roasted pork filet (arbitrary amount, sliced and cut into wide strips or bacon)

Spinach (baby spinach, one handful)

Cheeses (smoked gouda, finely diced and parmisiano reggiano (grated), amount arbitrary).

Beat the egg yolks and mix in the melted butter and set aside. In a standing mixer, add the egg white and sprinkle cream of tartar and beat it to stiff peak stage (#1). Fold in the egg yolk mixture until no white steaks are visible (#2). Melt the reaming butter in a 8 inch non-stick frying pan on medium heat until foam forms and add in the egg mixture and add topping and cheeses (#3). Place the pan into the pre-heated 375F oven (#4) and bake for 5 minutes (We did not use pasteurized eggs and wanted it to be completely cooked). If it springs back when lightly pressed it is complete done (#5). Tip the omelet onto the cutting board and let it rest for 30 seconds before cutting (#6).

Note: The original recipe for 2 servings called for 4 eggs and folded the omelet into half and then cut it into two portions. We used 2 eggs and did not fold the omelet.

Stuffing: I added olive oil (1 tsp) and butter (1/2 tsp) into a non-stick frying pan and sautéed the shallot for few minutes. I added the shiitake mushroom and sautéed for another minute or two. I then seasoned it with salt and pepper. I added the pork and then the spinach and cooked until spinach wilted.

This is a very good omelet with a unique texture. It is rather fluffy and the topping I made was great. We may have put on too much cheese but there is no such a thing as too much cheese in general.

Marinated tuna bowl 鮪漬け丼

When we get sashimi items from Catalina, it is not possible to finish everything in two days unless we have guests. To finish up everything in time, I need to plan ahead so that some portions of the sashimi may last into the 3rd day. One way is to make a marinated tuna  or "zuke" preparation. I used this technique often to make a low-quality frozen block of yellow fin tuna more palatable but, of course, this can be applied to good quality tuna.

When I prepared the block of top loin tuna, I separated the red meat "akami" 赤身 and marinated it. Although I posted a few variations of the marinades before, this time I used a very simple marinade of mirin, sake, and soy sauce (2:2:3) ratio. I used this marinade for the chiai with nattou dish as well. I did not do "yubiki" 湯引き or "tataki" たたき preparation for this (for no reason, just a bit lazy).

This was an ending dish for the 3rd evening after we received blocks of tuna sashimi from Catalina.

Making this dish is simple as long as you have sushi rice and marinated tuna sashimi.

Sushi rice: We got a new IH (induction heater) rice cooker a few weeks ago but did not have a chance to use it until now. So, we read the instructions and made the very first batch of sushi rice. This new cooker has a gauge for sushi rice--simply a bit less water. Using this setting, however, the rice came out a bit too dry or hard to our taste. In any case, I made sushi rice by mixing in seasoned rice vinegar (from the bottle). I placed the sushi rice on the bottom of the bowl, put the slices of the marinated tuna sashimi on top, smeared a small amount of wasabi on the tuna and garnished it with chopped chives and nori strips.

This is one of the cannot-go-wrong combinations of sushi rice, nori and tuna.