Kelp cured Hamachi はまちの昆布締め

Generally the sashimi-grade fish from Catalina is good but sometimes it can be a bit of a disappointment. The current batch had excellent toro tuna but mediocre hamachi (wild caught) and the premium uni was not particularly great for sashimi (from which I made "Uni and water cress cooked in butter and soy sauce"). After tasting the hamachi as sashimi on the first day, I made this "kelp-cured" hamachi for the next day.



The hamachi shown in the left back arranged to look like a flower and the hamachi between the cucumber and perilla leaves are kelp-cured. The toro shown on the left front was absolutely excellent and "toro aburi"トロの炙り next to it was also great.



The kelp-curing helped the hamachi lose its slight gaminess (gamey because it was not quite fresh enough), firmed up the texture and added a nice additional "umami" from the kelp. This is exactly the same as kelp-cured "amber jack" ヒラマサの昆布締め I posted before.

I sliced the hamachi on the bias relatively thin ("Sogi-Giri" そぎ切り) and placed it in one layer between two sheets of dried kelp. I had previously wiped the surface of the kelp with a moist paper towel. I then wrapped the kelp with hamachi sandwiched between the two layers in plastic wrap and placed it in the refrigerator for several hours.

Although the main reason for kelp-curing is to add more flavor to white meat fish like flounder, it worked to make a somewhat marginal sashimi palatable—good save, team..

Soft tofu with miso-butter shimeji 掬い豆腐のシメジ味噌バター乗せ

I had a combination of white and brown shimeji mushrooms in the fridge. When we fired up the Weber grill the other day for barbecued  chicken, I also made Miso butter flavored shimeji mushrooms (in an aluminum foil packet on the grill). Because the barbeque that day included other dishes including fish, we only ate a little of the shimeji. Several days later, I made this "otoshi" drinking snack from the left over barbecued chicken (I used the tenderloins) and the shimeji dish. The left below is cold "spooned" tofu (or "Sukui-dofu" 掬い豆腐) topped with miso butter flavored shimeji mushrooms and the right is shredded chicken tenderloin dressed in sesame dressing 鶏肉の胡麻和え.



Chicken: I used two tenderloins from the barbecued chicken which was very moist. I hand shredded the chicken along the grain of the meat.

Sesame dressing: I mixed white sesame past or shiro-neri goma 白練り胡麻 (1 tbs), sugar (1 tsp), mirin (1 tsp), soy sauce (2 -3 tsp), rice vinegar (1 tsp). Tasted and adjusted the consistency by adding more liquid (if seasoned enough, add "dashi"broth or one of the liquid ingredients). As the chicken meat tends to absorb the moisture from the dressing, it is better to have the dressing somewhat liquid and loose. I got lazy and used roasted white sesame as a garnish (you could have added dry roasted and ground sesame in the dressing for a better result).



The sukui-dofu was from a package which I got at the Japanese grocery store. I spooned several spoonfuls on the plate and then placed the leftover shimeji mushroom on top followed by some, thinly chopped scallion, Japanese one flavored red pepper flakes and drizzled "mentsuyu" 麺つゆ noodle dipping sauce from the bottle.

Since I had cucumber asazuke 胡瓜の浅漬け with salted kelp 塩昆布, I added that as well on the side of the chicken. For leftover control, this is decent drinking snack to start.

Nattou and tuna chiai spring roll 鮪の血合いと納豆の春巻き

Whenever we get toro tuna from Catalina, it is a challenge to finish the dark red portion of meat called "chiai" 血合い. It is the most undesirable and gamey part of the tuna. In the past, I made chiai, nattou and egg yolk and chiai burger. This time, I made several long cigar-shaped spring rolls from marinated chiai and nattou. I was afraid of how strong this would taste but the end result turned out to be very pleasant and we enjoyed it as the first snack of the evening.



I got this idea after seeing a recipe for red meat of tuna with nattou wrapped in eggroll skin (which is in the first book of the  Japanese Izakaya cookbooks section of this blog).

Tuna chiai: When I prepared the toro, I removed the chiai and cut it into small cubes (1/2-1/3 inch cubes) and marinated in in straight "mentsuyu" 麺つゆ noodle sauce and kept it in the refrigerator for a few days.

Nattou: This was one small package of  frozen nattou which I thawed. I added chopped scallion, mustard (1/2 tsp) and mayonnaise (1 tsp) and the sauce that came with the package. I then combined the marinated chiai tuna and nattou (almost all the marinade was absorbed in the chiai).

Spring roll skin: I cut the square egg roll skin in half to make a long rectangle. I placed the the above mixture along the near end of the spring roll skin and rolled into a cigar shape using a mixture of flour and water as a glue at the three edges. With the amount of the stuffing I had, I could make 5 rolls.

Instead of deep frying, I shallow fried the rolls. I used less than 1/4 inch  of peanut oil in the frying pan. After the oil heated up on medium flame, I placed the rolls seam side down into the oil. I  fried them for several minutes and then turned them over (see below). I fried the other side for another two minutes or so until the spring skins were nicely browned and crispy. I drained the excess oil on a paper towel line plate and served the rolls  in a small wine grass as seen in the first picture.



I did not make any dipping sauce since everything was well seasoned especially the chiai. Despite the combination of two very strong tasting items (chiai and nattou), the frying seems to have brought the flavors under control—this actually tasted rather tame. The nattou was not too smelly or sticky. The marination and cooking also made the chiai rather palatable and, of course, the crispy fried egg roll skin was just great. So this is another good way to consume the chiai of tuna.

Fiddlehead fern in sesame dressing こごみの胡麻和え

Fiddlehead fern is the young furled tip of the Ostrich fern (or it could be some other fern species) harvested in North America (probably in Maine or New England states). I have posted  another dish of fiddlehead fern in the past. In that post, I said this was similar to "zenmai" ゼンマイ in Japan but Jon mentioned "Kogomi"こごみ in his comment. I learned this time that fiddlehead fern (Ostrich fern or "Kusasotetsu" 草ソテツ)  is indeed called "Kogomi*" in Japanese. Although some varieties of ferns being eaten in Japan such as "zenmai" and "warabi" 蕨 do have small amount of carcinogens, sliminess and astringent flavors which require a special preparation, I learned that fiddlehead fern or "kogomi" does not have any significant toxins and could be eaten without special preparations. I did see fiddlehead fern previously in the spring and early summer  in the near-by gourmet grocery store. This is the first time I saw pre-packaged fiddleheads (see below) and could not resist getting a package.

*Kogomi" こごみ is so named since the fiddlehead fern looks like somebody is bending forward ("kogomu" こごむ or "kagamu" かがむ).



On the package, it said "tastes like asparagus and young spinach". Fiddlehead fern must be getting popular since it is being sold this way. Most of the Western recipes are for stir fry and salads. I decided to make "goma-ae" 胡麻和え or with sesame dressing.



This was quite good but the sesame dressing appears to overwhelm the subtle taste of fiddlehead fern.



This time I just simply cooked it since I did not have to worry about "toxins". I washed and removed the discolored ends with a paring knife and boiled it for 5 minutes in salted boiling water and then shocked it in ice cold water.  I then soaked it in water (I used filtered water) in a sealable container and kept it in the refrigerator (see below).



Sesame  dressing: I first dry roasted white sesame seeds (1 tbs) on a frying pan until fragrant (2-3 minutes) and coarsely ground it in a Japanese suribachi すり鉢 mortar (leave a little whole for a garnish). I then added white sesame paste or "shiro-neri-goma" 白練り胡麻 (1 tbs). I seasoned with sugar (1/2 tsp), rice vinegar (optional, 1/2 tsp) and soy sauce (about 1 tbs, but I added incrementally until the taste and consistency. You could add water if the seasoning is OK but the consistency is too thick).

I just removed the fiddlehead fern from the water, dried on a paper towel and dressed. I garnished it with more white roasted sesame.

This is such a seasonal vegetable and it was nice to have this. As I mentioned, my sesame dressing was a bit too assertive. I should have omitted the vinegar.

English Izakaya cookbook updates 英語の居酒屋料理の本アップデート

It was sometime ago that I posted an Izakaya cookbooks page for this blog. At that time the only Izakaya cookbook written in English was Mark Robinson’s “The Japanese pub cookbook”. That book was my inspiration to re-start this blog to share our love of Izakaya. During subsequent years, other Izakaya cookbooks and cookbooks which feature some Izakaya-style dishes written in English have emerged. Apparently, Izakaya and Izakaya food have become a bit more popular among English speakers. Also, many Izakaya-style places have appeared especially in New York and San Francisco.

In any case, there are several more Izakaya cookbooks written in English and I finally updated the Izakaya cookbook page of this blog. I divided the pages into “English” and “Japanese” Izakaya cookbooks. Hope this will be of some help to individuals interested in Izakaya cookbooks in English.

Sea Urchin and watercress in butter ウニクレソン

We had a variation of this dish at Yuzuki in San Francisco and also learned that the original dish was supposedly invented by a small “Teppanyaki” 鉄板焼き place in Hiroshima 広島  called “Naka-chan” 中ちゃん. I decided to try this dish since I got  “Premium” uni from Catalina for the weekend: they did not have “Gold” uni (it is getting nearly impossible to get gold uni).  The “premium” uni could be OK but this batch was very soft and disintegrating when we received it. The first day, I selected the most well-shaped ones for sashimi which tasted OK but the remaining uni did not fare that well. I thought about  making pasta with uni sauce.  I then remembered this dish and decided to make it. Initially, I was going to make the one similar to we had at Yuzuki but, after looking at the original dish, which is served with baguette and I happened to have baked baguette in the morning, I made this dish as it is served at Naka-chan (we have never gone there or had the dish in this variation but I based this dish on the description and pictures).



As you can see, we initially served only two thin slices (toasted) baguette rounds so that we would not fill up on this opening dish of the evening.



But we needed more baguette to mop up the wonderful sauce.



Since there is no "recipe", I just “winged it”. In the picture, the original dish appears to use whole water cress with thick stalks attached but I removed thick stalks (the amount is arbitrary, I could have used more watercress). I added about 1tbs of unsalted butter in a frying pan on medium heat. When butter bubbled and started browning, I added the watercress and sautéed until it wilted. Then I added a whole tray of premium uni (120grams) (Picture above). I added about 1 tsp of soy sauce and a squeeze of lemon juice and cut the fire.

This was sublime! It tasted wonderful on top of toasted baguette. We actually had to go get some more baguette because we were not going to leave a single drop of the wonderful sauce behind. The only alteration I would make is to cut up the watercress—the whole watercress became rather stringy. Next time, I may use the thicker stalks but I will chop up the water cress into much smaller pieces. We had this with cold sake but it may also go well with sparkling wine or a crisp acidic white.

Sous vide salmon poached in olive oil サーモンのオリーブオイル スービィ

This is our continuing exploration of sous vide cooking. We love salmon which I usually brown in a frying pan and finish in the oven. (I usually cook the skin separately to make it very crispy). But when I saw this  olive oil poached sous vide salmon recipe, I had to try it.



The above is the final product. I prepared and vacuum sealed the salmon over the weekend and cooked this on Monday after coming back from work. For fish, sous vide cooking does not take that long and having vacuum sealed packages ready makes it very easy even when you do not have much time.



The salmon is fully cooked but very moist. This was cooked at 135F for 30 minutes.

I looked at several recipes and decided to take the best of two recipes to come up with this cooking method. Unless you have a chamber type vacuum sealer, it is difficult or nearly impossible to vacuum seal items that include liquid. So, if you want to "oil poach", either you have to use "water-replacing-air- method" or make the olive oil "solid" before vacuum sealing. I used the latter method by freezing the olive oil.

Olive oil: I first added 1/2 cup of light olive oil to the vacuum pouch and placed it (vertically) in the freezer. After a few hours, the olive oil was totally solid.

Salmon: One pound of salmon fillet, skin removed (I also removed the fatty belly portion for another dish.) I made two equal sized fillets and seasoned with salt and pepper, lemon zest (micro-grated) and chopped fresh dill (from our herb garden). I took out the vacuum pouch with solidified olive oil in the bottom and placed sprigs of fresh dill and the seasoned salmon inside with the frozen olive oil. I vacuum sealed (While it was being sealed one of the fillets rotated as you can see in the picture below.)  I placed the package in the refrigerator.



Sous Vide: The temperature of sous vide was the next decision  I had to make. One recipe called for 109F but, at this temperature no pasteurization would occur (It would be the equivalent of eating raw salmon or sashimi). Another recipe called for 116F for rare, 126F for medium rare and 140F for medium. I decided on 135F which is above the pasteurization temperature. I cooked it in my sous vide for 30 minutes (see below).



Both fillets were nicely contained within the olive oil accomplishing oil poaching. I took them out, blotted the moisture and excess oil from the surface and browned in a frying pan with butter on a medium flame, 30 seconds on each sides. The salmon was very soft and difficult to flip over.

We really liked the end result. The meat was opaque and fully cooked but very tender, moist and flavorful. It encapsulated all the goodness of the salmon and the lemon zest gave a nice lemony flavor. We really like the fact that I can prepared the pouch ahead of time and it is a cinch to just plunge it in the sous vide. I suppose I can prepare these vacuum sealed packages and freeze them. It may take only 5 additional minutes to thaw in the sous vide.