White (brown?) almond gazpacho 白い (茶色？）アーモンドガスパッチョ

Some days, in cooking, things just don’t go right, even with items you’ve made many times before. That happened to me one recent weekend when I set out to make baguette. Everything went wrong. First the dough refused to rise sufficiently (even though I had proofed the yeast). I decided to cook it anyway. Somehow I got the wrong temperature and the bread came out “high done” i.e. burnt. So there we were with two skinny burnt baguettes (one shown below).

Surprisingly it still tasted pretty good. I was ready to throw it out and make like the whole thing never happened. But my wife stayed my hand. She came up with this dish based on a recipe from "Cooks illustrated".  This is a gazpacho using bread as the base. It is also supposed to be white (crusts removed) but my wife used my botched bread, dark brown crust, included so the the color is rather tan than white.  The brown (burned) crust added a nice nutty taste to the soup.

Ingredients:
Baguette sliced, enough water to cover the baguette slices
1 1/2 cup toasted sliced almonds
2 garlic cloves
5 tbs. rice vinegar
1 1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Seedless grapes cut thin and more toasted almonds for garnish

Soak the sliced bread in the water for several minutes. Process the toasted almonds in a blender until finely ground. Remove the bread from the water and gently squeeze out most of the water. (save the water). Add the bread to the blender with the almonds. Add enough of the soaking water that the bread can be pureed. After the bread mixture has reached the consistency of cake batter, add the garlic, vinegar, salt, and cayenne and continue processing (add more soaking liquid if necessary). Then add the olive oil in a thin steady stream. If the mixture is processed long enough it should be very smooth and creamy. Serve with the sliced grapes and toasted almonds as garnish.

Although the gazpacho was not white, the tan color was very pleasing. It was very creamy with a nice nutty flavor (from the burnt crust). The cayenne gave it a pleasant zing. It was a very filling and refreshing soup for a hot summer day. I took the remaining botched baguette, cut it up and put it in the freezer ready for the next batch of white/brown gazpacho. BTW the next morning, I redeemed myself, by successfully baking 2 baguettes. Next my wife will be asking me to botch a loaf because she wants to make gazpacho.

Cold simmered vegetables 冷製野菜の煮付け

The last time when I was at the Japanese grocery store, I bought a whole daikon 大根. When I came home I found 1/3 of the daikon I previously purchased in the refrigerator. So, I decided to make something from this left over daikon. Although I was not sure what I was going to make, I decided to just prep it. I peeled and cut the daikon into half circles (about 1 inch thick) and boiled them with a small amount of raw rice. After 30-40 minutes, I removed the daikon pieces and put them in a sealable container and placed it in the refrigerator. The next day, I made dashi broth from dried kelp and bonito flakes. I seasoned the broth with mirin and light colored "usukuchi" soy sauce 薄口醤油 and simmered the precooked daikon and carrot (this was not precooked). Although the dish was ready-to-go the weather was extremely hot and humid so the idea of eating a hot dish was not appealing so I placed it in the refrigerator. The next day, I served these vegetable cold. I added a bit more light colored soy sauce since the seasoning gets muted when served cold. Since we had a small amount of left over sou vide salmon, I also served that cold with a dab of Japanese hot mustard.



We were pleasantly surprised at how good and refreshing these cold simmered vegetables were. The dashi broth was very good since I made it without taking shortcuts.



We will make this dish as a regular "teiban" 定番 dish during the summer. We have more left, so we will be enjoying this a few more times.

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.