Shouchikubai Daiginjou Sake from California grown Yamdanishi 松竹梅大吟醸，米国産山田錦

Last time I posted G-sake and G-sake Fifty from SakeOne, Gordon kindly let me know that Takara Sake Co. 宝酒造 in Berkley were finally growing Yamada-nishiki 山田錦  in the Sacramento valley and were producing Junmai Daiginjo 純米大吟醸 . After some effort we finally got a few bottles directly from Takara. After I received my shipment, they restricted purchases to one bottle per order and then finally indicated they were out of stock. So, I guess, I was lucky.



The label reads, "Sho Chiku Bai*" Junmai Daiginjo 松竹梅純米大吟醸 brewed exclusively from California-grown Yamada-nishi 米国産山田錦全量 (polished to 45%). It is "unfiltered" Genshu 無濾過原酒 (i.e., undiluted with alcohol content of 16%) and is limited release 限定品. It had handwritten numbers and batch code(?) on the label.

*"Sho Chiku Bai" means Pine-Bamboo-Plum．This combination is considered a very auspicious in Japanese culture.



It happened that I received the sake just before a long holiday weekend and marked by some exquisitely pleasant sunny days. Consequently we had this tasting outside. As usual, we needed "otoshi" drinking snacks to enjoy this sake. I prepared a trio. From left to right; green asparagus (blanched) and chicken breast (barbecued in Weber, hand shredded) with "kimisu" 黄身酢 (egg yolk vinegar dressing), sashimi squid (frozen package) dressed with soy sauce, real wasabi and tobiko roe, and finally white asparagus with cream sauce (cream and reduced asparagus cooking liquid and butter).



This time, the  "kimisu" I made is a bit thicker and richer than before.



For frozen, the squid was not too bad and tobiko roe added an interesting texture.



The white asparagus requires a bit more preparation and cooking but the end result is sublime. The sauce really makes it…we didn’t leave any behind.


Now we were ready for sake tasting. We served this sake chilled. The color was clear. The sake had some floral aroma (Daiginjo smell), was nice and subtle with no distracting yeastiness. The palate was very clean with some subtle melon/apple and a hint of "umami" savory taste finishing with a slight sweet note.  It had a classic Yamada-nishiki daiginjo taste; clear and elegant. This one, I sensed, had a slightly bit more savory component than other daiginjo brewed from Yamada-nishiki such as our house sake "Mu" 無from Yaegaki 八重垣.

Albeit that this sake represented a very different price point, compared to recent batches of G-sake and G-sake fifty, this Sho Chiku Bai has a definitely more authentic daiginjo flavor profile and we like it much better. It is so smooth and easy to drink. Although we do not know what kind of California rice G-Sake is brewed from, I surmise that the sake rice they may be using must have more protein content since it has a strong savory taste. Yamada-nishiki, on the other hand, is known for its low protein content, thus, producing a cleaner and crisper taste in the resulting sake especially in the Daiginjo class. We also remembered that we tasted another daiginjo "Sho chiku bai" imported from Japan sometime ago and we were not as impressed with that as we are with the current sake. Compared to that daiginjo from Japan (which was more expensive), the all-American-daiginjo "Sho Chiku Bai" (may be except for the sake yeast) is indeed superior (and cheaper by $20).

All three otoshi appetizers went extremely well with this genuine American Daiginjo sake.  Hope we can “snag” several more bottles from next year's batch when they are released…BTW the line forms to the rear.

Indian-style Chicken curry with cream

This is another one of my wife's Indian-style curry. This is chicken curry with tomato and cream. I really like this one. We like to make this on the weekend and then quickly heat it up after coming home from a hectic day at work. Its nice to have such a hearty and flavorful dish waiting for us.


We needed something green for the photo.



Ingredients:
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cardamom
1/4 tsp cloves
1/4 Tsp cumin seeds
3 bay leaves
3 Tbs fresh ginger diced
3 garlic cloves diced
2 onions diced
1 tbs ground coriander
1 tbs ground cumin
1 large can  plum tomatoes (reserve the juice)
4 chicken thighs deboned, skinned and cut into large cubes
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
3/4 tsp salt
light cream (to taste). 

Several red potatoes (optional)

Take the first 5 ingredients and let them “bloom” in several tbs of hot oil (I use peanut oil). When they become fragrant add the chopped onions and sauté until they become translucent. Add the garlic and ginger continue sautéing careful not to burn the garlic. Once they have “bloomed” add the coriander, cumin, pepper and salt and allow them to “bloom”. Add the tomatoes and cook for a few moments. Then add the reserved tomato juice from the can. (If using the potatoes add them to the sauce and cook until they become a bit tender. Finally add the chicken. Make sure all the pieces are submerged in the sauce. Simmer gently until the chicken is tender (about 30 to 45 minutes). Just before serving add light cream to taste stirring it into the sauce.

This is one of our favorite curries. It uses almost all the spices on the shelf but the resulting layers of flavor make it worth while. The cream really evens everything out adding a mellowness. The chicken meat picks up all the flavors and is very tender—one of the best ways to cook chicken thighs which can be pretty chewy. We eat this with white rice.

Sous vide filet mignon

We heard that sous vide is the best way to cook a perfect steak. I have also heard "you can hold the steak at the desired doneness for a long time in sous vide without worrying about over cooking”. So, with high expectations, we tried sous vide filet mignon.

It appears that there are two methods of doing this. One is to cook the steaks in the sous vide first and them sear them. Another is to sear the steaks first and then sous vide them. With this method, the steaks are briefly seared again after coming out of the sous vide in order to “refresh” the crust. The advantage of the second method is that the first searing occurs when the meat is cold and uncooked which helps the searing process and cooks only the surface. In the first method, after the meat is sous vide cooked, the meat is warm and to developed enough crust, wider layers of over cooked meat will develop under the curst. I am not sure if this two methods make a big difference. But I decided to try the second method. I got two USDA prime filet mignons.

We served the steak with my wife’s oven fried potato, haricot verts (first blanched and then sautéed in garlic and butter). We could have done a better presentation (particularly with that blob of catsup) but it is too late.

I did the first searing using a small amount of vegetable oil on high heat for 30 seconds each sides. The filets came out directly from the refrigerator. After blotting off any juice/moisture, I vacuum sealed it (#1) using the edge type vacuum sealer. Towards the end of the vacuum sealing, some moisture got sucked out and the vacuum was not as tight as when I vacuum sealed dry items. Nonetheless it made a reasonable vacuum seal. Apparently if you use a “chamber” vacuum sealer, you can vacuum seal wet items better but that type of equipment is beyond my reach. For medium-rare, I set my ANOVA sous vide machine to 56C (133F) based on this recipe (#2). The thickest filet mignon was about 1.5 inches, so it should take about 90 minutes to cook. I set it to 3 hours instead, since that would put us at the right time for dinner. Also I trusted what I read that the steaks could be held for up to 6-8 hours without over cooking or deterioration of flavor.


After the steaks were cooked in the sous vide, I finished them by searing a second time. This time I used butter and sprigs of fresh thyme on high heat for 10-15 seconds each side basting with melted butter (#3). I then seasoned them with Kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper. As you can see the nearly entire cut surface is nicely rosy pink with a very thin crust (#4). No over cooked surface areas or undercook center.

We think sous vide steak is much better than any we have tried. I usually cook steak by keeping the steak out at room temperature for 15-20 minutes and then searing it in a hot frying pan and finishing in the oven. This method is not bad but, definitely, produces an overcooked surface area and undercooked center even after resting the steak for 10 minutes.

This filet mignon was very tender with a nice crust but no bloody juice came out. The thyme was from our herb garden but we did not taste much of thyme flavor in the steak. Besides being a perfect steak, I think, the sous vide method is perfect for cooking steaks for a company dinner. You just hold the steaks in the sous vide until serving and quickly refresh the crust and serve. It is much easier than a frying-pan-to-oven method.  The only shortcoming may be that it is not possible to accommodate different doneness unless you have more than one sous vide machine.

Sous vide butter poached lobster tail スービィロブスター

This was a celebration of a sort. Instead of going out for dinner, we decided to stay home, cook lobster and pop open a good champagne. Since we recently acquired a sous vide machine, we decided to butter poach lobster tails with tarragon in the sous vide.


Our spring herb garden started producing some herbs such as French tarragon so this was the perfect recipe. I served the lobster tails with the butter used for poaching on the side for dipping along with some lemon juice.
 
We are not champagne connoisseurs but we had one more bottle of a 2000 vintage Don Perignon which we have had for a few years and decided to open it.

It had a nice straw color with fine bubbles. It had the slight taste of toasted bread, pear and cantaloupe flavors. Again, this is like "throwing pearls before swine" (or “Giving a gold coin to cats” 猫に小判– Japanese proverb). The pigs or cats here may not able to appreciate all the subtleties of this champagne but we enjoyed sipping this fine libation, nonetheless.

Going back to the lobster, we decided to use frozen lobster tails instead of live whole lobsters, which we usually get for this type of occasion, especially since this was a new cooking method for us (although how can it go wrong if you are poaching anything in melted butter). This recipe came from the blog of sous vide supreme.

I got two frozen uncooked lobster tails. I thawed them and remove the shells or exoskeleton (right upper in the picture below) showing one with shell removed and one with shell still attached.

I placed the two tails in a vacuum bag, put in a pinch of salt, butter (6 tbs, unsalted, thinly sliced, and two sprigs of fresh French tarragon (from our herb garden). I vacuum sealed (right upper).
I then placed the bag in a 60C (140F) water  bath (lower left). The temperature went down by 0.2C but almost immediately it came back to 60C. I cooked it for 30 minutes (lower right).
 

After 5 minutes, the butter had all melted and the lobster tails were happily poaching in melted butter. After 30 minutes were up, I took the bag out.  This is how the lobster tails looked.


I removed the lobster tails form the bag, poured the poaching liquid (mostly butter) into a container and squeezed in the juice of one lemon. I served this with asparagus (blanched and sautéed in butter) and a tomato half also cooked with butter seasoned with salt and black pepper.

This was a major success. Even though these were frozen tails, they were sublime; very tender but not under or over cooked. The tarragon permeated the butter and the lobster tails. The tarragon butter melded with the sweetness of the juice from the lobster and was a perfect dipping sauce for the succulent lobster. My mouth is watering just writing about this and looking at the pictures again.

P.S. I used the left over dipping sauce butter to make fried rice the next day and it was incredible. It infused the rice with a sweet-tarragon-lobster taste that left me wanting more.

P.S. 2 We also tried sous vide lobster tail at 130F for 30 minutes. I thought this was nice, a bit less cooked and very slightly transparent. My wife preferred 140F for 30 minutes. So, in our household, sous vide lobster tail will be cooked at 140F.

Japanese “onsen” hot spring eggs 温泉卵

After coming up with, what I thought were reasonably safe conditions for pasteurizing shell eggs at home using Sous vide, the next natural step was to make Japanese "Onsen" eggs 温泉卵. One thing I have to point out is that a Japanese "onsen" egg is not a Western-style soft boiled or poached egg. For Westerners, a  totally cooked but still tender white with a runny egg yolk are the combination that constitutes a perfect soft "boiled" or "poached" egg. Japanese onsen eggs are just the opposite—the white is still loose and a bit slippery but the yolk is congealed to the texture of thickened cream  or custard or "nettori" ねっとりtexture and moist.  To make this combination you exploit the fact that the yolk congeals at a slightly lower temperature than the white. Also another fact to consider is that the "jelling" process of egg proteins occur slowly and progressively and the duration of cooking also make a difference in the end results.



The above is my sous vide "onsen" eggs. I served it cold with cubes of ripe avocado, garnished with finely chopped scallion, and "real" wasabi.  I poured cold sauce which I made over it.  The green is water cress added for color.



The above is how the yolk looks after cutting into it using a spoon. It has a viscous and moist texture but is not runny. The white is not firmly congealed and is very tender still slightly slippery but does not have a "raw" texture. As far as I am concerned this is a perfect "Onsen" egg. You could make this without Sous vide but with it, you can control the temperature precisely to make perfect and safe "Onsen" egg every time.



I consulted the blog by a Japanese molecular scientist and gastronome who described making the "ultimate onsen egg " 究極の温泉卵 using a circulator/water bath with 12 combinations of temperature and duration (in Japanese). I followed his recommendation of 67C (152.6C) for 30 minutes. Again there is no mention of the initial temperature of the eggs in this post. I used eggs directly from the refrigerator (40F or 4.4C) and after 30 minutes were up, immediately submerged the cooked eggs in ice cold water for for 15 minutes, wiped them dry and stored them in the refrigerator.

With this high-temperature of 67C in sous vide, I estimated that the egg yolk will reach 54.4C sometime conformably before 30 minutes, extrapolating from the Dr. Cox's chart at 60C. The fact, also, that the egg yolk was homogeneously congealed  indicates to me the temperature of the egg yolk was way above 54.4C*, probably near or at 67C, without significant temperature gradients. Although I used Pasteurized shell eggs this time, I am reasonably comfortable that I can safely used regular shell eggs for this recipe.

*Requires 5 minutes at 54.4C to accomplish "lethal" kill of salmonella, reportedly.

Sauce: I had leftover dashi broth which I made from a "Dashi pack" (kelp and bonito). I added mirin, sake and light colored soy sauce 薄口醤油 and let it come to gentle boil for few minutes, let it cool to room temperature and then refrigerated. You could use diluted "Mentsuyu"noodle dipping sauce 麺つゆ from a bottle as well.

To serve, I could have just seasoned with soy sauce or salt and used it as a topping for salad, noodles or a rice dish. The way I served the eggs is a good one if you just want to enjoy onsen eggs. I was a bit worried my wife might reject the looser texture of the egg white but she said although soft it was cooked not raw. She really liked the dish especially the custard-like texture of the egg yolk.

Compared to soft boiled or poached eggs, onsen eggs are easier to keep and serve.  Once made, they can be kept in the refrigerator safely for, at least several days, and, since the white is not attached to the shell, the eggs slip out easily by just cracking the shell open (No more struggling to get the shell off soft boiled eggs).

Sous vide and home pasteurization of shell eggs スービイと自家製滅菌卵

Please also see the second version of home pasteurized eggs.

Salmonella contamination of hens eggs and chicken meat doesn’t appear to be a big problem in Japan. Raw and undercooked eggs and chicken meat are frequently consumed on such items as raw egg on rice (卵かけ御飯), moon-gazing soba noodle (月見そば) and "tataki" or " sashimi" of chicken tenderloins (とりわさ). In the US, salmonella food poisoning is a serous problem. Eating any product with raw egg in it is risky. Common sources of salmonella food poisoning are home-made mayonnaise, Caesar salad dressing, and raw cookie dough as well as sunny-side-up and soft boiled eggs with runny yolks, Some states (New Jersey being one) even outlawed restaurants from serving sunny-side-up eggs for a while. Certainly nobody in their right mind would consume raw or under cooked chicken meat.

If we want a dish with raw eggs or runny yolks, we use pasteurized shell eggs which we posted before. Low temperature pasteurization for shell eggs is a patented process by Dr. and Mr. Cox. Only one producer (Davidson's safe eggs) is using this patented method.

Recently I acquired a very reasonably priced home sous vide machine. There are at least three products in this category and after reading the review I settled for "Anova" sous vide machine (see below).



The submersible part contains a heating coil and agitating propeller under a metal cover with vertical slits and the  top has a good sized touch sensitive color LED screen for setting the temperature and time. It does quite well heating up the water, maintaining the temperature and providing good circulation. I double checked the temperature using a digital thermometer and found the temperatures registered in the water with the sous vide was within 0.7 F of the temperature registered on the thermometer so it was quite accurate. I am not sure, however, which one is more accurate. In addition the temperature was even thorough out the water bath.



The first thing I wanted to try was to pasteurize shell eggs at home. This has to be done at a  temperature low enough that the egg white and yolk don’t coagulate but high enough and long enough to reduce the salmonella to safe levels. I read about low-temperature pasteurization of shell eggs including the patent filing of Dr. and Mr. Cox and Food Lab's guide to slow-cooked. sous-vide-style eggs. Some suggestions regarding "home pasteurization of shell eggs" I found on the web appear to have no scientific basis and did not sound like they would accomplish adequate pasteurization at all.

I determined that  at 130F for more than 2 hours (2 hours 20minutes to be exact in the eggs I “pasteurized” but 3 hours will be on the extremely safe side) would be the most reasonable to accomplish the goal of pasteurization. But I do not have any microbiological proof to confirm this. So I have to add a word of caution that the results of this method are not guaranteed--use at your own risk.  If you are interested how I came up with this conclusion, please read below*.

I sous vided shell eggs directly out of the refrigerator for 2 hours and 20minutes at 130F. I thought that the long time at low-temperature would eliminate possible temperature gradient issues. I immediately soaked the sous vide eggs in ice cold water for 10-15 minutes, dried the surface and placed them in the refrigerator. My wife suggested that I mark the eggs before putting them with the others in the fridge. She helped me to write "P" for "pasteurized" on the eggs using a pencil (below). (She told me that when she was young this was a method her mother used to distinguish hardboiled eggs from raw ones—its no fun cracking the last egg in the house to make a cake only to discover it is hardboiled!)



When I cracked open the home pasteurized eggs after a few hours of refrigeration, the yolk and white were liquid and looked about the same as an unpasteurized egg.



The second egg (front) had a very slight cloudiness (Which I see occasionally even in the commercial pasteurized shell eggs) but was still liquid.



I scrambled these two eggs and made a stuffed omelet. It cooked exactly like any un-pasteurized egg but I did not have to worry about having undercooked egg in the omelet. Its texture and taste were fine as well.

* Sous vide low-temperature pasteurization of shell eggs.

Dr. and Mr. Cox patent application is a good example of lawyers writing a scientific/technical article. It is next to impossible to figure it out. This patent  contained not just pasteurization of shell eggs but other egg products, scrambling eggs in their shells (why do you need to do this is beyond me),  and a method of replacing naturally occurring gasses in shell eggs with mixture of  sterile air and gasses to prolonged the shelf life. This is a chart they included in the application.



I interpreted this chart this way; at 129.5F (54.4C), the egg white did not coagulate ("irreversibly damaged") at least up to 120 minutes but the yolk temperature reached 54.4C after 105 minutes and maintaining this temperature for 5 minutes would be "lethal" (for salmonella, I assume). At 140F (60C), eggs can be sterilized a bit shorter than 30 minutes  but before this happens "irreversible damage" of egg white will happen. Any other temperatures in between, pasteurization can occur before the egg white starts to "thicken before irreversible damage" but you need to stop heating before 120 minutes to accomplish pasteurization without "irreversibly damaging" the white. To my dismay, the document did not specify the initial temperature of the eggs in this experiment.The initial temperature could make a difference in the amount of time needed to eliminate a temperature gradient and have the yolk achieve a temperature high enough to be lethal to salmonella.

In any case, from this chart and Food Lab's guide to slow-cooked. sous-vide-style eggs, I concluded at 130F, you could keep the shell eggs for a long time (at least 2 hours to be safe) without coagulating the egg white or egg yolk and obtain the adequate pasteurization at the center of the egg yolk. I think that low temperature and long heating time should eliminate any variables stemming from the initial temperature of the eggs and temperature gradient.

Now that I think I can safely produce pasteurized eggs, I will still buy Davidson's Pasteurized eggs but, just in case, we now have a back up plan. More sous vide cooking is coming.

P.S. After receiving a comment from an anonymous reader, I am adding the new references below. Dr. Schuman's article has soild microbiological proof, albeit only 57C and 58C were tested in details. As per this paper, to be absolutely safe (non-detectable salmonella or total bacteriocidal level), 57C (134F) for 75 minutes is recommended. I am not sure if egg white will become cloudy at this temperature,  butI will try and let you know. The below is from the reference 2 below.

1. Schuman JD, Sheldon BW, Vandepopuliere JM, and Ball HR Jr. Immersion heattreatments for inactivation of Salmonella enteritidis with intact eggs J Appl Microbiol. 1997 Oct;83(4):438-44.
   
2.  USDA Document "Pasteurization of Liquid Egg Products and Shell Eggs"
   

Octopus salad 蛸のもろ味味噌サラダ

The last time I went to the Japanese grocery store, I could not resist buying a leg of boiled octopus. We had a thick portion of leg thinly sliced and we enjoyed it dressed in mustard miso and vinegar dressing 芥子酢味噌.  I cut the remaining portion into small chunks or "Butsu-giri" ぶつ切りand made this sort-of Japanese-Italian salad.  The dressing was made of "moromi miso" 諸味味噌, yuzu juice and extra virgin olive oil (EVOO). We had this with a red wine and it went Ok.



I sprinkled on Japanese one flavor red pepper flakes.



Ingredients:
Boiled octopus leg, cut into small chunks (amount arbitrary).
Japanese cucumber , one cut into small cubes (cut into 4 long pieces along the length and then cut across).
Celery, two stalks, veins removed and cut into small cubes.
Daikon, one 1/3 inch slice, peeled and cut into small cubes (I think Jicama will also work)

Dressing:
Moromi miso, about 1 tbs
Yuzu juice, about 1 tsp (I used one from the bottle)
EVOO, about 1 tsp

I just dressed the above ingredients in the dressing. After tasting I added a bit more moroni miso. I placed the salad on the water cress and sprinkled Japanese on one flavor red pepper flakes 一味唐辛子.

The combination of moromi flavor with cucumber and celery works well. The addition of EVOO adds an interesting "Italian flavor". This is an interesting small salad to start the evening. This probably would go better with sake or beer.