Bottarga 唐墨

Salted and dried fish roe may not to be the most popular food item in the U.S. but, for some (Sardinians, or Japanese for example), it is a delicacy. I was quite surprised to learn that Japanese “Karasumi 唐墨” was actually an import from Europe through Nagasaki 長崎 during the time Japan was mostly closed to foreign trade except for “Dejima 出島” in Nagasaki. The European counterparts are called “Bottarga”  or “Botargo” and are especially well known in Sardinia. Since we cannot get karasumi here in the US easily, we were interested in getting “Bottarga” from Sardinia instead. After several failed attempts trying to get bottarga from local Italian gourmet food stores, we resorted to the Internet. We finally got Sardinian bottarga made by L'Oro di Cabras from Gray Mullet roe sold by "Gustiamo" in New York (package pictured below).

It is rather small and much darker colored than typical Japanese karasumi.

First we tried it in Japanese style with thin slices of daikon (shown above).

Next day, I served it with sliced cucumber and radish.

This one has a stronger flavor (or you could call it "fishy") than the Japanese variety. It is also saltier than the karasumi we got from Sushi Taro Osechi. We tried it with red wine and it did not go well  so we switched to cold sake which was much better. Albeit this is a good nibbling snack for sake, this is definitely an acquired taste and I have to admit, karasumi tastes better to me.

Fried Amaebi heads and sashimi 甘エビの頭の唐揚と刺身

This is not a new dish but since we recently got amaebi 甘エビspotted prawns from Catalina among other things, I decided to post it again. This is the very first dish I served after we received toro, uni and amaebi from Catalina. I decide to serve deep fried shrimp heads and shrimp sashimi together. I changed how I served the sweet shrimp sashimi. For this preparation, I chose 4 of the smaller shrimp. The large shrimp heads are better suited for miso soup.

I removed the heads, trimmed antennae and proboscis, dredged in potato starch (optional) and deep fried in peanut oil for 5 minutes turning once or twice. I removed the shells from the shrimp tails and deveined them. I cut them into small bite size chunks. (By the way, I made shrimp broth from the shells).

I seasoned with sea salt and sprinkled them with sake and marinated for 10 minutes before serving. Since two of the larger shrimp had roe, I added some of the roe to the sashimi. I then added a small dab of freshly thawed “real wasabi”.

This is the best way to enjoy the pure taste of rather sweet raw shrimp meat. My wife removed the wasabi (she said she didn’t want to taste anything but the sweetness of the shrimp). I, however, mixed in a small amount of the wasabi which I think accentuated the flavor and made it taste even better. The deep fried heads were crunchy and nice, although you have to be very careful how you eat them so you don’t get stabbed by a sharp leg. My wife removed the hard outer shells and ate only the inside. I braved everything--the shell and all.

Chicken “Soboro” 鶏のそぼろ

“Soboro” そぼろ is a rather common Japanese dish which is often used as a topping for rice (especially for lunch boxes). It is also used for other dishes but (more importantly) it can be nibbled as a drinking snack. In this category of condiments, “Soboro そぼろ”, Oboro おぼろ” and “Denbu でんぶ” are similar products. All of them represent finely chopped or ground up fish or other meats, seasoned (soy sauce, sugar or mirin with the addition of garlic and/or ginger) and cooked until the liquid is almost gone. My first memory of “denbu” is “sakura denbu 桜でんぶ” which is artificially dyed pink and a very sweet fish meat product. My mother used to garnish scattered or roll sushi with it. The difference between “Soboro”, “Oboro” and “Denbu” may be the fineness of the chopped meat or fish. In any case, I made this “soboro” from mostly chicken tenderloin and other trimmings off of three large bone-in split chicken breasts.

Here is one small serving which could be nibbled while sipping sake.

Ingredients:
Chicken, ground ( I hand chopped tenderloins, 300 grams or about 10oz)
Ginger, grated (about 1/4 tsp, I was out of the tube kind and used fresh ginger).
Garlic, grated (about 1/3 tsp, I used garlic from a tube but you could grate fresh garlic).
Vegetable oil (1/3 tsp)
Soy sauce (2 tbs)
Mirin (2 tbs)

I added the ginger and garlic to the ground chicken. I cooked the meat mixture in a non-stick frying pan with a small amount of vegetable oil on low heat. I continuously mixed and crumbled the meat mixture into small individual pieces by occasionally cutting and squashing the pieces using a bamboo spatula with a straight edge (below, left). I kept stirring until the meat was completely cooked and individual pieces were separated into granules. I added the soy sauce and mirin (the amount should be adjusted depending on preference or the use of the soboro. For example, If it is going to be used as a rice condiment, you may season it more strongly). I kept stirring until almost all moisture was gone (below right).

This is a very standard Japanese flavor of sweet and salty with ginger. The granular texture gives is a nice little crunch. Hopefully, I can come up with few more dishes from this chicken soboro.

Chicken breast with yuzu flavor 柚子鶏

I saw this recipe in one of the blogs I follow (in Japanese). Interestingly, this is all done in the microwave oven in a fashion similar to my saka-mushi  or sake-steamed chicken. This is a quite good drinking snack and we enjoyed it.


I followed the recipe with very minor modifications (I did not add sugar to the marinade).

Ingredients:

Chicken breast, boneless skinless (one, large)
Salt (1/4 tsp)
Potato starch (1 tsp)

For marinade:
Soy sauce 1 tbs
Mirin 1.5 tbs (original 1 tbs)
Sake (rice wine) 1/2 tbs (original 1 tbs)
Rice vinegar 1 tbs
Soy sauce 1 tbs
(Sugar 1 tbs, I omitted this)
Yuzu koshou 2tsp

For the side:
Onion, sliced, 1 medium
Scallion for garnish

I first removed the tenderloin from the chicken breast. Following the original recipe, I "stabbed" the chicken breast with the tip of my knife to make multiple cuts across the grain of the meat. Then, I flattened it using my  meat pounder (with a smooth flat bottom). I placed the marinade and the chicken in a Ziploc bag, massaged, removed as much air as possible and sealed it. I let it marinate at room temperature for 30 minutes.

I placed the chicken breast in a silicon microwave container. sprinkled in the potato starch, poured the marinade over and place on the lid. I microwaved it on high for 2 minutes and checked (it appeared that the sauce was getting thick and I added a small amount of hot water). I flipped the chicken over and microwaved for 1-2 more minutes. (Our microwave is 800KW, and this timing has to be adjusted depending on the wattage of your microwave oven). I let it cool down a bit with the lid on for 10-15 minutes.

Meanwhile I put the sliced onion in a separate silicon microwave container, put the lid on and microwaved it on high for 2 minutes. I then put the cooked onion in the sauce with the chicken.

When the chicken was warm but cooled down enough to handle, I sliced it (The first picture is one small serving which is half of the breast), put the onion on the side and garnished with chopped scallion (green part for color).
I thought this was quite good and had a nice yuzu-citrus favor from yuzu-koshou. It is not spicy at all despite the yuzu-kosho. My wife thought this was on par with my microwave sake steamed chicken. I thought this tasted more interesting. In any case, this is a perfect snack with sake or even wine. Actually we had a cold ginjou 吟醸 sake from Shizuoka 静岡 prefecture called "Wakatake Onigoroshi 若竹鬼ごろし" Devil slayer. This is a slightly sweet gentle sake but has a nice fruitiness and went well with this dish.

Sesame "udon" noodle salad うどんの胡麻和えサラダ

I got this idea many years ago from “sesame noodle salad” which was available in the delicatessen section of a near-by grocery store. This is a sort of hybrid dish and could go well as a side for American style barbeque or could be served as a Japanese style drinking snack.I

I used the thin Udon noodles you see below on the left called “sanuki udon” 讃岐うどん. These are the dried kind and take about 13 minutes to cook. They have some texture and won’t dissolve or get too soft even if used in chicken noodle soup. Another needed ingredient is “nerigoma” ねりごま which nowadays comes in a plastic pouch (rather than in a can, below right) similar but slightly different from tahini. Nerigoma is from roasted white sesame seeds and appears much finer or creamier than tahini but tahini can be used in this recipe. Udon noodle: I used two bundles (2 servings) of dried sanuki udon. As per the package instructions, I boiled them for 13 minutes and rinsed under running cold water and then drained. I used the noodles without cutting them but you may want to cut them into short segments. I put just a dash of dark roasted sesame oil on the noodles and mixed well using my hands to add sesame flavor as well as preventing the noodle from clumping.

Other vegetables;
Carrot (2 medium, peeled and thinly julienned)
Haricot vert (or green beans): (1/2 cup, boiled and cooled, cut on bias)
Scallion: 4 stalks chopped finely (below, lower right).

Dressing:
Sesame past or nerigoma: 3 tbs
Soy sauce: 2 tbs
Rice vinegar 1 tbs
Sugar 1/2 tsp
Sesame seeds 2 tbs, dry roasted.

The secret to a good sesame dressing is to use both sesame paste and dry roasted sesame seeds which are coarsely ground. The combination will give a nice smooth texture to the dressing as well as bursts of strong sesame flavor.

I mixed the first 4 ingredients in a small Japanese mortar (or suribachi すり鉢) (above, left upper). Of course, you can use any small container or bowl to do this. I dressed the mixture of noodles and vegetables (above, right lower) using this dressing. Meanwhile I roasted sesame seeds on a dry frying pan until the surface of the seeds started developing dark brown color and became fragrant (above, right upper). I tipped the roasted sesame seeds, preserving a small amount for garnish, in a suribachi and ground it coarsely (above left lower). I mixed this into the salad. You could add more soy sauce and/or vinegar after tasting it.

I served this with a garnish of sesame seeds. In this presentation, this is a perfect sake snack. The nice slightly chewy texture of udon noodle and sesame dressing is a good combination.

Stir fried "kinpira" daikon 金平大根

When I recently made a simmered daikon dish, I removed the sharp edges (called mentori 面取り). This additional step makes the appearance of the daikon better and also prevents the edges from coming off after long simmering (called nikuzure 煮崩れ). Since I did not want to waste these scraps of daikon, I made this dish in a way very similar to “Kinpira” gobou or burdock root.

Digression alert: I first tasted this dish many years ago while bar hopping with friends in the Susukino 薄野 district of Sapporo 札幌, One of our favorite watering holes was a bar where the mama-san happened to be a high school classmate of one of my friends. One time, we stayed until closing and she suggested we move the party to another place that was still open. (Some places stayed open very late to serve people working in the industry and “night owls” the likes of us). As we walked (staggered?) to our destination we passed a fruit and vegetable stand. Such stands were not unusual in the Susukino area at that time (I always thought they were meant for drunk fathers and/or husbands to lessen the guilt of their imbibing by buying a souvenir/peace offering to take home to their families—or for bar hostesses, who were wife and/or mother, to get some vegetables for their family on the way home after a long night’s work ). The stand was open and brightly lit displaying baskets of fruits and vegetables…and they were expensive! The mama-san, urged us to stop and look around a bit. Of course, we did not buy anything especially since none of us was a father and/or husband or wife and/or mother at that time and especially since we were not going home yet.

When we finally arrived at our destination; a small bar with a lone master behind the counter, the mama-san whipped out a rather large good looking “daikon” and asked the master to make something with it. We did a double-take. Where had that come from? She apparently lifted the daikon from the fruit stand we had just visited.  Her explanation was that the fruit stand charged exorbitant prices for vegetables and this was her way of exacting justice. We were not in a state to argue. The master cooked up this dish and we enjoyed it very much. When I told this story to my wife, she just kept asking, “where did she hide the thing when she heisted it?” (Come to think of it, having divulged this story what is the statute of limitations on daikon theft?)

The amount of the vegetables are all arbitrary but this is the amount I used for two snack sized servings (below left). Since the daikon scraps were not enough, I also added 1 inch round of daikon which was peeled, sliced and julienned. I also did the same for one medium  carrot. I added julienned aburage 油揚げ which was thawed in hot water, water squeezed out and cut into thin strips.

I placed a small amount of vegetable oil (1/2 tbs) and a dash of sesame oil in a frying pan on medium heat and added flakes of red pepper (to taste). When the oil became hot, I added daikon and carrot and stir-fried  (above right). When the oil coated the vegetables, I added aburage and stirred for one more minute. I then braised with mirin (2 tbs) and soy sauce (1 tbs). I stirred until the liquid was almost completely evaporated. I garnished with white roasted sesame seeds.
I don’t remember if the dish I had at the Susukino bar included carrot and aburage. This dish could go with any drink but sake is the best match. Compared to Kinpira gobou, this has a different texture and taste, although the basic seasonings are the same.

Poached egg with curry sauce 温泉卵のカレーソース

This is another quick dish perfect for a late night after drinking or, for that  matter, as a breakfast the morning after. ( Of course we are not implying that was the case here). I just came up with this since we had leftover Japanese curry but most of the meat and vegetables were already consumed. As long as you happened to have leftover Japanese curry sauce, this is quick to make.

We just toasted a piece of bread (This happened to be English muffin bread my wife baked). My wife toasted and buttered it. She put on three slices of smoked cheddar cheese (below left). Meanwhile I heated up the curry sauce, added slices of leftover roasted pork filet, and dropped two eggs (one per serving) into the sauce and put the lid back on. I took it off from the heat when the surface of the yolk was just barely opaque and the yolks were still runny (below right). Of course, we used safe, pasteurized eggs for this.  I poured the sauce over the cheese/toast and placed the poached egg on the top. Because of the heat from the sauce, the cheese melted/softened.

We broke the egg yolk and enjoyed. The smoky flavor of the smoke cheddar cheese really worked here. The eggs yolk mixed with the curry sauce and made it richer. Since the curry sauce was rather mild, heartburn after breakfast was not a worry. This was a very hearty satisfying breakfast.