Tako Grill タコグリル

I am running out of new dishes to post. One weekend, I made "Ganmodoki" がんもどき thinking that although I had made it before I did not post it. When my wife saw what I was making she said she was experiencing “deja vu all over again” and suggested that I had already posted it. I checked my blog and, in 2012, I posted this dish.  I have been making dishes which go well with sake, but none of them are particularly post worthy or new. Meanwhile we have been visiting Tako grill, our “Izakaya” substitute regularly. While their dishes are always good, like any sushi bar, the range and variety are dependent on what fish are available. Recently we had several visits in a row where we hit the jackpot and enjoyed some great sashimi. Sushi Chef Jose Calderon did justice to the selection by preparing some spectacular sashimi presentations.

The picture below shows one such arrangement. The toro is arranged into the shape of a large rose flower, on the left hiding under the scallion and myoga 茗荷 are fresh sanma or Pacific saury. In the back, "Aoyagi" clam あおやぎ is arranged. In the boat made of cucumber is "sumiso" 酢味噌 dressing. He also added "hagikami" ginger はじかみ生姜 or young pickled ginger.



Everything was great but when they have it "aoyagi" clalm is a "must-have".

This picture shows how toro is frequently presented. It is “melt-in-your mouth” good.



Mr. Segawa, has been making  “Izakaya” dishes for some time. I think we tried all of them at least once. Please note the menu continues on the back side.



The dish below was one from the Izakaya menu. I do not remember what fish this was but it was dredged in potato flour and then served with a sweet and sour-type sauce. This could not possibly be bad.



Back in “the day” (when I was in Japan), sanma was almost never served as sashimi or sushi (because it was considered a cheap fish and was mostly grilled) but improvements in transportation and refrigeration as well as upgrading the status of sanma made it possible to have very fresh sanma, and therefore, sashimi when it is in season even in the United States. This had a lovely oiliness, firm texture and just the right amount of seasoning.



This time, Jose put together toro, wonderful uni (from California), Kanpachi カンパチ and aoyagi clam. When uni is good, nothing compares.



We are so lucky to be able to indulge in these delicacies.

Potato croquette with Sous vide chicken breast コロッケとスーヴィー鳥の胸肉のネギソース

Potato croquette in Japan also known as "Poteto Korokke" ポテトコロッケ was apparently modeled after a French dish "croquette" but it is one of the most popular Japanese-style Western dishes or "Yoshoku" 洋食 . It was invented probably shortly after Japan opened to Western cultures towards the end of the 19 century.  Instead of the béchamel sauce used in the original French version, the Japanese version uses mashed potato. (The béchamel sauce version is called "cream korokke" クリームコロッケ in Japan and usually contains crab meat and may be called "Kani korokke" かにコロッケ).  As a "seasoning", minced and sautéed onion and ground meat are usually added but only in small amounts. Potato korokke has been a symbol of a cheap side dish* which can be bought at a "Souzai-ya" 惣菜屋  or "side-dish store"（Any dish other than rice is regarded as a side dish; rice being the main show). More recently, traditional Souzai-ya have mostly disappeared and been replaced by the basement floor of department stores or "Depachika デパチカ.

*Digression alert: "Song of Korokke" コロッケの歌 was reportedly popular in the Taishou era 大正時代 (1912-1926). The first verse goes like this;

"I was so happy I got married 
But my wife serves me
Korokke today, Korokke tomorrow, and Korokke everyday all year long
this was not what I expected (after getting married)...".

Thus, this song fixed the status of potato korokke as a cheap side dish heavily relied upon by neophyte/incompetent (culinary skill wise) housewives as a quick fix supper.

One weekend evening, I made potato korokke served with tonkatsu sauce とんかつソース and Japanese hot mustard (picture above).



Potato korokke:
Mashed potato*: white potato (4, medium), cooked and mashed, seasoned with butter and salt and cooled.

*Any kind of mashed potato will do but I like to leave some small chunks of potato for texture. This time, instead of making the mashed potato from scratch, I made this from the leftover mashed potatoes my wife made the day before when we barbecued a pork loin in our Weber grill. She microwaved the potato (4 medium) for 7-8 minutes or until cooked and mashed it mixing in a package of cream cheese spread (this one was "garden vegetables" flavor) and seasoned with salt and pepper. The addition of cream cheese spread is my wife’s new idea which she developed while we were on vacation. Cream cheese spread with "chives and onion" is probably better for this.

Onion: one large, finely minced, sautéed in butter and seasoned with salt and pepper.
Meat*: Any ground meat will do. This is seasoning but not the main ingredient so the amount is arbitrary but not too much. The ground meat is cooked with the onion. Let it cool down.

*Again, I deviated and used several slices of the barbecued pork loin finely diced since this was available.

I mixed the mashed potato, onion, and pork. You could further season the mixture if you like.  "Curry" flavor (by adding any of your favorite curry powder) is very popular, at least, when I lived in Japan. I used an ice cream scoop to portion it out on an aluminum foil-lined cookie sheet. I moistened my hands and formed the potato mixture into flat oval shapes (I made a total of 9 good sized ones).  The temperature greatly affects the consistency of the mixture. Initially, the mixture was very stiff but by the time I formed the patties, it had become rather soft. I placed the cookie sheet into the refrigerator uncovered until I was ready to cook (for several hours) to firm up the patties before breading.

I dredged with flour, dipped in egg water and coated with "Panko" bread crumbs (see below).



I deep fried the patties in peanut oil at 350F for 5 minutes on each side turning once.



In this case, Korokke was the main dish and, on the side, I also served sous vide chicken breast. I prepared (seasoned with salt and pepper and vacuum packed) this chicken breast sometime ago and froze it. One of my previous tries at sous vide cooking salmon that was still frozen did not yield a good result and I decided to thaw the chicken before sous vide cooking it. As before I cooked at 140F for 2 hours, which is enough to make the chicken safe to consume. This time I also made "Negi so-su" ネギソース or scallion sauce and put it over the chicken. My wife made a baked acorn squash seasoned with salt, honey and butter. I also added steamed and butter sautéed green beans.

Scallion sauce: I am sure there are many recipes for this but I took shortcuts. I thinly sliced scallions including the green parts (more the better). I added small amount of grated ginger and garlic (both from the tubes), and ponzu-soy sauce (from the bottle). I tasted it and added mirin for sweetness.

Acorn squash: I halved an acorn squash with a heavy chef's knife. My wife took over and cleaned the "guts”-seeds and membrane, placed it cut side down on an aluminum foil lined cookie sheet and baked it for 45 minutes at 350 degree. When done, she scooped out the meat using a spoon, seasoned with butter, honey, and salt.

This was quite good. The chicken meat was very moist and the rather assertive negi sauce went well. Of course, the main item, "potato korokke" had a nice crunchy crust with a flavorful soft center and was great. We do not mind having this today, tomorrow and everyday!

Grilled cheese sandwich with mushroom グリルチーズサンドウィチ

This is yet another version of breakfast that we came up with while we were on vacation. I was contemplating what to make when my wife mentioned she was in the mood for something ooey-gooey and cheesy…but we were eating too many eggs. Using what we had left over and with my wife's suggestion, I made this grilled cheese open face sandwich.



We had onion, leftover portions of royal trumpet mushroom, branched broccoli (which I made few days ago as a side for a dinner). So these were the items I used for this open-face sandwich.

I first sautéed the onion in butter and then the mushroom seasoned with salt and pepper. I lightly toasted the sliced "artisan Italian bread" and placed these vegetables on top (see below).



I placed several slices of aged cheddar cheese.



Placed under the broiler fro few minutes or until the cheese melted.



Before serving, I garnished it with grated parmesan cheese.

This was a good breakfast sandwich. Now only a few vacation days left, so we have to use up whatever is left in the refrigerator.

Croque monsieur クロックムシュー

Drinking morning coffee on the balcony while on vacation watching the sun rise out of the Atlantic ocean eventually burning through the clouds on the horizon I was suddenly inspired to make croque monsieur for breakfast.



What I came up with was a variation on the theme of French ham sandwich called "Croque monsieur". Last time we visited Paris and stopped at any bar for an afternoon "coupe de Champagne", we often had "Croque monsieur" as a snack (in fact that seemed to be the only thing on offer for an afternoon snack or a snack at any other time at the bars).  The ones we had in Paris were similar to what I made here but most of the recipes I looked at are double decker ham and cheese sandwiches. Mine was an single layer open-faced sandwich. I served this with slices of pan fried zucchini.



Ingredients for 4 slices of bread.

Bechamel sauce:
Onion: finely diced, (half, medium)
Flour: 2 tbs
Butter: 2 tsp
Oilve oil: 2 tbs (or 2 tbs of butter)
Milk: 1 cup
Nutmeg, ground, to taste
Salt and pepper to taste

The béchamel sauce was my usual relatively low-fat version. I sautéed the onion in a butter-olive oil mixture until the onion was cooked but not browned (3-4 minutes on medium-low heat). I then added the flour and kept stirring until the raw flour was all gone and the onion pieces were coated with flour. I added the cold milk at once and kept stirring until thickened. I added the seasoning.

Ham: I just used a good packaged ham cut into strips (4-5 slices, amount arbitrary) and, for good measure, some salami also cut into strips (optional).

Cheeses: Although Gruyere is the best cheese to use, I did not have it so I used a half and half mixture of aged cheddar and Jarlsberg (amount arbitrary), cut into small cubes (or grated).

Bread: Any good sliced bread will do but I used a bread labeled as "Italian Artisan Bead", 4 slices, lightly toasted.

After the ham and cheeses were mixed into the béchamel and the cheese melted, I spread the mixture on the bread and placed it under the broiler until it bubbled and brown spots appeared. I let it cool down a bit and served.



The bread crust got a bit hard but overall, this was quite good and gave our breakfast another interesting variation.

French toast with crushed honey sesame stick crust セサミステックフレンチトースト

We are again on vacation on the Atlantic ocean. One of the challenges cooking here is to make something good with limited resources available. In the past, my wife came up with a savory French toast with hot sauce. This time, she came up with this rather unusual but very successful French toast.  To add some sweetness and crunch, she (actually her sister) crushed honey sesame sticks (which my wife bought as a snack) by banging them with the bottom of the plate in a Ziploc bag. The idea was that the flavors of the honey sesame stick would add both sweet and salty dimensions with some sesame flavor and also a nice crunch. Since we did not have maple syrup, I also made a strawberry sauce. On the side, my wife made plain yogurt mixed with skinned and diced Asian pear. The combination worked very well.



This is not for just the two of us but we had two additional guests.



Egg liquid: Beaten eggs (4) with milk (2 tbs) without sugar or other seasoning.
Honey sesame sticks: coarsely crushed.
Bread: This one was labeled as "Italian Artisan bread", sliced.

1. Soak bread slices in the egg mixture for 10 minutes to let it absorb.
2. Dredge it in the crushed honey sesame sticks, pressing with your palm to make it adhere.
3. Fry it with melted butter on a non-stick frying pan on medium heat turning once (2-3 minutes each sides)

For strawberry sauce: Wash and remove the petal end and cut it into half or quarter. Add sugar (amount totally to your taste) and mix. After 10-15 minutes, juice/syrup will accumulate on the bottom of the bowl.




Although I was initially skeptical of my wife’s idea of using crushed honey sesame sticks it actually worked.

We were all impressed with how well this one turned out. Subtle sweetness from the honey sesame stick crust and the strawberry sauce was very pleasant and we did not miss the maple syrup. The added crunch was very nice. Again, this dish proved that necessity is the mother of invention.

Grilled Tofu, shiitake mushroom, and rice balls 焼おにぎり、焼しいたけ、焼き豆腐

This is continuation of our ad hoc grilling one fine fall day. These are the ending dishes. After enjoying grilled squid and capelin with roe, we grilled tofu with miso sauce, large thick and meaty fresh shiitake mushrooms with soy sauce and mirin and our usual grilled rice balls.  I prepared the tofu by wrapping it in paper towels, sandwiched it between two plates with a weight on top. I left it in the refrigerator for several hours to remove extra moisture. I probably should have brushed the tofu with oil since it tended to stick to the grill.

After the surface of the tofu developed a nice char mark, I flipped it over and smeared on the miso sauce (mixture of miso, mirin, and sugar  with micro grated zest of lime). After the other side was grilled, I briefly (30 seconds) grilled the side with the miso sauce  and served.

I put the mushrooms gill side down on the grill. After several minutes, I turned them over and added soy sauce and the mirin mixture on the grilled side of the mushroom. Then I added finely chopped scallion. The mushrooms absorbed the sauce adding to the flavor. While we enjoyed the grilled tofu and shiitake mushrooms, as you can see, the rice balls were getting cooked.I grilled the rice balls with all sides and they developed a lovely crunchy crust. I finished it with the miso sauce.

We really enjoyed grilling outside and when we finished, it was completely dark and we were basking in a warm red light of our infrared heater. This was definitely a bonus grilling day which we enjoyed.

Grilled Capelin with eggs 樺太シシャモ焼

“Shisamo” シシャモ is rather specific to Hokkaido but the vast majority of fish label “shishamo” is actually capelin or Karafto shishamo 樺太シシャモ.  The lovely autumn day we had our impromptu grilled marinated squid, I also grilled shishamo or capelin.

The shishamo which we can get at the Japanese grocery store is usually slightly dried and frozen. Although I could have cooked them in a frying pan or toaster oven, charcoal grilling adds an additional flavor dimension to the fish and is one of favorites.

This is the first time I noticed that the package was honestly labeled as Canadian Caperin with roe or “komochi karafto shishamo” 子持ちからふとししゃも  (see below). There must be a new regulation and enforcement to label the  origin of the food items.

In any case, this capelin with its roe was very good. We served this with a small mound of grated daikon or “daikon oroshi” 大根おろし with soy sauce. This was very good indeed.