Kampachi cured with Kelp カンパチの昆布締め

Kampachi カンパチ is usually called "Amber jack" or sometimes "young" hamachi ハマチ which is young "buri" ブリ but appears to be different from the Hamchi/Buri family—confusing?. The taste of the meat is similar to Hamachi, albeit more delicate. We got this kampachi from a source that is new for us called "Fish for Sushi". I made "Kobu Jime" 昆布締め or kelp cured kampachi. This preparation results in a kampachi with a firmer texture and subtle but definitively  enhanced "Umami" flavor　



The kelp-curing technique is commonly used for white meat sashimi fish especially flounder but I thought it will be interesting to use it for kampachi. After thawing the fish completely (#1), I divided it into the loin and belly parts (#2). I thinly sliced the loin meat obliquely to get thin but larger pieces. I wiped the surface of the dried kelp sheet with a wet paper towel and placed the slices of kampachi on it (#3). I folded the kelp to completely cover the slices. I wrapped the kelp packet in plastic wrap and placed it in the refrigerator for several hours. When I opened it, the kampachi slices were almost transparent and the texture was firmer since the water had been drawn into the kelp and umami from the kelp infused into the fish (#4).



This is certainly a worthwhile preparation for kampachi.

Super-frozen Bigeye tuna sashimi and Kampachi 超冷凍メバチ鮪とカンパチのさしみ

As I mentioned in the boiled octopus post, we got super-frozen bigeye tuna and kampachi from a new place called "Fish for Sushi". The picture below shows the sashimi I served for New Year's eve along with the octopus we got from them.

The picture below is what I served in the evening on New Year’s day. Instead of regular daikon garnish I served daikon namasu 大根なます with ikura and also added kazunoko 数の子 with bonito flakes.

The fish came in a styrofoam box with plenty of dry ice.  The left in the picture below is super-frozen (bigeye) tuna and the right is "kampachi (belly loin). The instructions on how to thaw the tuna were slightly different from the ones listed on their website and on the label (temperature and duration of initial treatment). I followed the one on the package. The kampachi loin did not come with any specific instructions. So, I just thawed it quickly in the package soaked in running cold water. I wrapped both the tuna and kampachi in paper towels and placed on a plate in the refrigerator.



The kampachi thawed rather quickly but the tuna took more than 5 hours, probably better to leave it 12 hours (overnight). After it was thoroughly thawed, I wrapped in parchment paper and placed it in a Ziploc bag. It keeps up to 3 days after thawing in the meat case of the refrigerator.

In terms of taste, as far as "akami" or red meat of tuna goes, this was rather good but nothing beats "toro" and "chutoro" we can get from Catalina. It is far superior to "yellowfin frozen tuna" treated with CO. The kampachi was good but you may have to clean it up by removing some small bones and the remnants of skin. We still prefer tuna from Catalina but this is a good second source for sashimi fish.

Whole boiled octopus ゆでだこ

We usually get sashimi items from Catalina Offshore products but with the New Year fast approaching, they did not seem to have fresh tuna (especially fatty bluefin tuna) available despite many times I checked their web site. So, I decided to try a new vender called "Fish for Sushi"*. They sell only frozen fish but unlike many of the frozen yellow fin tuna which I have used in dishes posted before, their tuna (either bigeye or yellowfin) is said to be "super-frozen" and not treated with "odorless smoke" (euphemism for carbon mono-oxide gas to make it look more red). For the New Year, I ordered frozen bigeye tuna, kampachi (subjects for later posts) and boiled octopus. We usually get one small octopus leg at a time especially for the holidays but they only had a 2 lb boiled then frozen whole octopus. The price differential between the single leg we usually get and the whole octopus with 7 additional legs plus a body made the purchase seem more than reasonable i.e. the whole animal was relatively cheap compared to the single leg.

*The actual frozen items came from "Uoriki Fresh" located in New Jersey. This place appears to be the wholesaler for the “Fish for Sushi” retail site—or so we assume.

A whole, 2 lb octopus, however, is a lot of octopus, (the usual lamb roast that we buy is only about 3 pounds). So in addition to the portions being used for the New Year's dishes, we had a lot of octopus-eating to do. I had to come up with a number of different dishes in a race against time to finish it up before it went bad.  The first day we received it, I made my usual octopus dressed in "karashi-sumiso" as seen below.

I added chopped scallion and thinly julienned daikon.

Another variation I served on a different day was dressed with yuzu-koshou, olive oil and soy sauce. This was rather good with some heat, yuzu citrus flavor.

This is how the whole boiled octopus looked. I defrosted it in the refrigerator for 2 days and washed it under the running cold water.

I separated the legs (eight of them, just in case you did not know "Octo" is 8).

One leg was sliced and then placed in sweet vinegar to make "Sudako" which I used to accompany my daikon "namasu" 大根なます for the New Year (below).

Rejuvination process: The octopus tasted good and fresh but the 3rd day after I thawed it, I re-boiled it to remove any off flavors and to make it last longer. I boiled enough water so that 2-3 legs could be submerged easily with a dash of sake and a small amount of salt. I also prepared a large bowl with ice and cold water next to it. I first placed the 2-3 legs at a time into rapidly boiling water for 5 seconds and then immediately plunged them into the ice water to cool. I repeated this process for all the legs and the head. After they were thoroughly iced down, I removed them from the ice water and patted dry with a paper towel. I wrapped them in a new paper towel and placed them in a Ziploc bag. I refrigerated the pieces in the meat drawer of the refrigerator (lowest temperature place in our refrigerator). With this treatment, I expected the octopus to last at least another week. After tasting it again I think that although it was very good and fresh, after the parboiling, it tasted even better. I made more dishes from this fellow and they will be the subject of separate posts.

New Year "Osechi" from sushi Taro 寿司太郎のおせち料理

 We have been feasting on Sushi Taro Osechi Boxes おせち料理 for three days and there is still some left. As usual we picked it up the boxes on the afternoon of December 31. We received two boxes or "Ju-bako" 重箱 neatly wrapped in "Furoshiki" 風呂敷 Japanese wrapping cloth as you can see below. Although this is the 3rd year we've gotten the Sushi Taro Osechi, it was still exciting to peek into the boxes to see what treats are inside.



This is a view of the upper box. Black beans (kuro-mame 黒豆) are in the jar (left upper corner) and steamed sea urchin is in the right upper corner. In the center is a small grilled red fish or "Tai" 小鯛の姿焼き and the right to that is beef tongue, Some items are hidden underneath.



This is the lower box. We love "ankimo" monkfish liver terrine (left upper) and this year, we got more of our favorite "karasumi" からすみ or Japanese bottarga (in the upper center). With these two items alone we can consume a lot of sake. The center row includes sake steamed prawns and chestnuts. The 3rd row contains simmered vegetables, duck breast and simmered octopus.


On New Year's Day, I made a plate with the combination of my dishes and the ones from Sushi Taro Osechi. Although, "Datemaki" 伊達巻き (yellow roll) was also in the box, I served the one I made from "Hanpen" はんぺん fish cake and eggs. Besides "matsukaze yaki" 松風焼き (left lower), salmon kelp roll 鮭の昆布巻き (behind Datemaki) and Kazunoko herring roe 数の子 (below Datemaki, the rest of the items are from the box. I added decorative cuts on the red and white fish cake 紅白蒲鉾. A big prawn was sake steamed and delicious.



Daikon Namatsu 大根なます was also included in the box but I served mine with Ikura salmon eggs and sweet vinear marinated octopus.



This is marinated "Russian" salmon with lemon and onion I made as usual from my mother's recipe.



The below are drinking snacks on January 2. These are all from the box. We had this with red wine. From the left, beef tongue, marinated egg yolk with Brasilian nuts (wonderful!), Sweet potato, Datemaki, Chestnut (shibukawa-ni 渋皮煮), Ankimo terrine (right upper), Daifuki mame beans 大福豆 and cherry petal nagaimo. All went well with the wine.



This could have been a lunch on the second. The left is small molded sushi with cured snapper, the front is my salmon kelp roll.



This could have been the 3rd day appetizers. Duck breast, marinated egg yolk, mustard stuffed burdock root, burdock root with sesame sauce, cumquat simmered in syrup, three rolled items on the right (from the top) are cod roe wrapped in kelp, shrimp cake "shinjo" 海老しんじょう wrapped in "yuba" 湯葉 tofu skin, cured snapper with center of vinegared young ginger "gari" wrapped in kelp. All are excellent but the mustard (mixed with egg yolk??) stuffed burdock root is exceptional and only a "pro" could make the items wrapped in the nori sheets (I think).



I have not mentioned all the nice simmered vegetables and several kinds of marinated grilled fish and other goodies. For the past three days of the New Year, we have been indulging in so many small nice dishes. This is better than Christmas feast (at least for me).

This is January 4th. I again combined items from the box with the ones I made. The marinated grilled fish was best served heated up in the toaster oven.



Although this was a lunch, this type of food begs for sake and we succumbed. For starch, we had grilled mochi Izobemaki 磯辺巻き.



I think we have to stop this sometime soon. We are definitely over indulging. The items below were the ultimate snacks for drinking sake including karasumi, ankimo terrine, cod roe wrapped in kelp, sweet fish with its roe and sake steamed prawn.

With these, we finished a bottle of rather dry but very agreeable Suigei 酔鯨 from Kochi 高知.

Again the boxes from Sushi Taro were fabulous. They make a good New Year an even better New Year. We could get used to this life style!

Boiled Gyoza dumpling 水餃子

Gyoza are very popular in Japan. There are even chain restaurants specializing in gyoza as well as ramen noodle restaurants serving them. There are three main ways to cook gyoza; (1) fry-steam-fry (most common), (2) steam or boil, (3)deep fry. Some time ago I posted pork gyoza which was first browned and then steamed by adding water (and covering with a lid). After the water evaporates, it again browns and crisps up. This time, I decided to boil the dumpling in chicken broth. This type of gyoza is called "Mizu gyoza" 水餃子 ("mizu" means water).

I served boiled gyoza with a dab of yuzukoshou 柚子胡椒 and ponzu sauce ポン酢.

In this version, I added slices of ginger, soy sauce and mirin to the chicken broth in which the gyoza were cooked and used it as a sauce.

Stuffing: This is same as before. I mixed  ground pork (I hand cut the trimming of the pork tenderloins as usual) with sautéed finely chopped onion and shiitake mushroom, boiled and finely chopped cabbage (after they cooled down to the room temperature). The amounts are all arbitrary (if you are “rich” of course use more meat). I seasoned with a small amount of soy sauce, roasted sesame oil, ground ginger and garlic, salt and pepper. I mixed well using my hand until the meat became sticky and the ingredients were bound together.

Gyoza skin: I used American wonton skin (square in shape). I moistened the two adjacent edges of the wonton skin with water. After I placed a teaspoonful of the stuffing in the center, I folded the skin diagonally, pressed it together, and then made a few pleats. This time in order to make the gyoza into pleasing shapes, I used a round cookie cutter to cut off the the edges of the skin after folding it to make a perfect half moon shape but this is optional.

I added chicken broth (my usual low-salt no fat version from Swanson) to a sauce pan and let it come to a boil, I added slices of fresh ginger, soy sauce (I used light-colored soy sauce  or "Usukuchi" 薄口醤油), mirin and sake. I dropped the gyoza into the boiling broth and cooked it for several minutes until the skin became semitransparent and the stuffing was cooked.

I scooped them out using a slotted spoon, placed them on the plate without overlapping. Although we could eat them immediately, I prepared this on a weekend morning when I had some free time. So, I let it cool and covered it with plastic wrap and put in the refrigerator for the evening meal.  In the evening, I warmed them up by dropping them in the warm broth and served as seen in the two pictures above.

By boiling, the skin attained a slightly slippery texture which is quite different from either steam-fried or deep fried gyoza. It seemed reminiscent of ravioli somehow. We still like gyoza made in a traditional fry-steam method but the boiled one could be made in large numbers and even can be frozen. This was a perfect small snack to start the evening.

Happy New Year 2014 明けましておめでとう ２０１４

Happy New Year! It is 2014 and the year of the horse. Last year was eventful with the sad departure of some relatives and some dear friends. Nonetheless we had a memorable visit to Japan in the fall visiting family and friends such as Tako grill in Kuorishi. In addition, we finally got to meet Dave デイブちゃん and Tobias とびちゃん.

On our trip to Japan this year we added white and red horses from Kyoto and a brown one from Asakusa to our collection of zodiac animals.

Beside some new year dishes I made, we again got "Osechi" boxes おせち料理 from Sushi taro 寿司太郎 (more details to come). As usual, we had the New Year's day brunch/feast in our "tea room".

The dishes I made were my mother's "famous" marinated "Russian" salmon ロシア漬け (left lower) and Daikon namasu  なます with vinegared octopus 酢蛸 (left upper), datemami 伊達巻 (yellow roll), Matsukaze-yaki 松風焼き (left of the prawn) and herring roe 数の子 from Hokkaido sent in this year's "care package" by my mother.

We also had our usual "Ozouni" お雑煮 with deep fried tofu pouch-wrapped mochi 餅巾着 (my wife's preference. She claims it is the only way to keep mochi under control and "on a leash"...It tastes good too.)

The sake we had was from Miyagi prefecture, "Uragasumi Zen" Junmai Ginjo 浦霞『禅』純米吟醸. The day was nothing too different from any other year. But still a very nice quiet enjoyable New Year's day. (Details to follow). Happy New Year to all of you and yours!!

"Toba" salmon from Hokkaido 北海道から鮭のとば

My mother, as usual, sent us a “care package” of food for the New Year. Among the items she sent was dried salmon called "Toba". Although I posted about "Toba" before, this batch is much better than what we had before and the shape is also correct. Quoting from my previous post
"Toba とば, written in kanji ideograms as 冬葉 which means "winter leaves". This is a famous item on my home island of Hokkaido. The name, I suppose, comes from the way the strips of salted salmon drying in the cold winter wind resembles brown leaves on the bare branches of trees. Traditional toba is usually very chewy, or sometimes hard like a strip of leather, and very salty. It is sort of the Hokkaido version of beef jerky. This version is considerably "tamed". The skin has been removed and it is cut into smaller pieces. In addition, somehow it has been made much softer, although it is still quite salty."

As you can see below it’s resemblance to narrow blades of a leaf is unmistakable.

This one is also a modern version and is not too salty or too hard like traditional ones. Eating this brought back nostalgic memories of my youth. I remembered that when I was young and bar-hopped in Susukino すすきの,  these were usually served with mayonnaise, soy sauce and tougarashi (Japanese red pepper flakes) mixture as shown below. They were often even delivered to your mouth by an obliging hostess—although I am not sure that improved the flavor in any way.

This and other items came in a box proclaiming "True authentic gifts that only Hokkaidians* can give".

*I am not sure this is a correct Demonym for people of Hokkaido but people in Arcadia is Ardadians, people in Hokkaido could be Hokkaidians or other choice may be Hokkaidoites.

Last time, I succumbed to having this with scotch and water but this time we stayed with red wine. Although I have to admit it probably goes better with the scotch.