Simmered chicken wings and daikon大根手羽煮物

We like chicken wings. Short of grilling them over hot charcoal Yakitori style, our most common way of cooking wings is to coat them with a flour and curry powder mixture and bake them at a  high temperature (450F in convection mode). They come out almost as if they had been deep fried. I bought the wings last weekend and placed them in a Ziploc bag with sake. I did not have a chance to cook them during the week so I wasn’t sure they would still be good when I turned my attention to them the next weekend. Because they were soaked in sake, they survived. Instead of our usual way of cooking them, I decided to make something different and came up with this dish, especially since I had some good daikon which also needed some attention. This is a rather common method of cooking and the "collagen" from the wings makes the simmered dish very unctuous. The daikon absorbed all the goodness of the wings.



Ingredients:
Chicken wings,  6, drummets and wings separated (wing tips removed and discarded or use it to make broth) (#1)
Daikon, Skin peeled and cut into 1 inch thick (#1).

I first added vegetable oil (2 tbs) in a frying pan, browned the chicken wings (turning once few minutes each). Once the wings were browned, I moved the wings to make room for the daikon and browned it next (few minutes for each sides until the edges browned). I added some chicken broth (my usual Swanson) to just cover the wings and daikon (about 300ml, #2).



I put on the lid and simmered it for 30 minutes. I then added soy sauce (2tbs), mirin (1tbs) and sake (1tbs) and sugar (2 tsp) and put the lid back on and simmered for another 30 minutes (#3). I then removed the lid and turned up the flame and let it reduce by half shaking occasionally (10-15 minutes). I tasted it and added a bit more soy sauce. I served one wing and drumett and two wedges of daikon  as a drinking snack (#4).

My wife asked if we needed a fork and knife. I said "chopsticks would do. The meat will just come off the bone like butter." I was right. The daikon is very soft and absorbed all the flavor and was easy to cut with chopsticks. Removing the bones from the wings was equally as easy with chopsticks (need moderate - not "jedai"-chopstick skills). My wife was impressed with this dish. We quickly switched to sake.

P.S After refrigerating, I removed all congealed fat from the surface. The broth was totally congealed because of the collagen from the wings. It heats up well by microwaving.

Pa Dutch Lebanon Bologna sandwich ペンシルヴァニアダッチ、レバノンボロニアサンド

I mentioned several times that, although my wife is not Pennsylvania Dutch, she grew up in Pennsylvania Dutch country predominated primarily by Mennonites. Her childhood food memories have a large PA Dutch food component.

This time, as she was browsing through the many catalogs we receive, especially around Christmas she found "Pennsylvania Dutch Sweet Lebanon Bologna" in the Vermont Country Store catalog. She said she had not tasted this since her childhood and promptly ordered it. In her excitement she decided to share her find with her siblings who also live far away from PA Dutch country. So she ordered some for them too. When it arrived, she told me I just had to try this traditional (so I was told) sandwich featuring the bologna on pumpernickel bread.



Since we do not have traditional "Bread and Butter" pickles, she used my Japanese-style cucumber pickles.



Here is how my wife made her beloved sandwich from her childhood. First, she has to use Pa-Dutch style Lebanon (which is named after a county called Lebanon, PA, not the country located in the middle east) Bologna (#1). She is particularly fond of  a "sweet" variety shown here. Second, the bread has to be Pumpernickel bread. She lightly toasted it and let it cool down before assembling (#2) with sharp cheddar cheese slices and pickled cucumber. Since we did not have "Bread and Butter" cucumber pickles, she substituted with my Japanese-style pickled cucumber (#2)



The bread slices were generously smeared with mayo and "two" slices (I said one and half will cover the bread but was told that you do not do one and half) of the Lebanon Bologna were placed (#3). Slices of cheddar cheese and pickled cucumber went next (#4). This was capped by another slice of the Pumpernickel (with mayo smeared as well) and cut in half and served (First two pictures).

This was a rather nice sandwich. I have to admit it has a pleasant unique taste which I have never had before. My wife was in heaven. Beer anyone?

P.S. We have a funny follow-up. My wife somehow imagined that she would receive a "log" of Bologna especially as it was rather pricey but she received two 8oz packages (which was exactly as listed in the catalog). The next time I went to the local grocery store I was curious to see if  they just might carry the Lebanon bologna my wife just bought or something similar. I looked and immediately I found the very same packages of Lebanon Bologna by Seltzer's and it was orders of magnitude cheaper even excluding the shipping cost than what my wife had paid. We are sure this has been available all along but we never looked for it. My wife was a bit chagrined particularly when she took into account the additional expenses she incurred by sending it to her sibs. We had a good laugh nonetheless. She is actually glad to discover that she can have 10 packages from the local grocery store for the cost of one mail order any time she wants.

Sushi Taro Osechi box 寿司太郎のお節重箱

Again this year, we got Sushi Taro's New Year's Osechi box 御節重箱. Many of the items are expected classic osechi items and are just great. A few items, however, change every year.  I am providing you with a description of a few items we really love. The picture below shows the first tier. This year, there were more chestnuts "Shibukawani" 栗の渋皮煮 than last year's box (supposedly one of the customers asked for it which suited us just fine).



The steamed sea urchin 蒸し雲丹 is wonderful. Short of having raw fresh sea urchin this is a close second.



Herring roe on kelp or "komochi konbu" 子持ち昆布 was presented on a skewer with a green vegetable which was very nice but I cannot figure out what kind of vegetable that was. Small seasoned whole shrimp 小海老艶煮 were nestled between the duck and kumquats simmered in syrup (this is new this year and we really liked it but a word of caution when chewing, you need to pay attention to the orientation of the shrimp to avoid mouth puncture). Hiding in the left lower corner is (miso) marinated egg yolk with walnuts 黄身くるみ or 黄身の味噌漬けくるみ入り which we look forward to every year; great sake snack. Quite a few more items are hiding behind these and we will uncover them as we dig down.



This is the bottom tier. Good sized prawns braised in sake 海老酒煎 are under the "flower" renkon 花輪蓮根 lotus root.  Tender simmered octopus タコの柔らか煮 is just below on the right. In the bottom section on the right is burdock root stuffed with mustard からし牛蒡 which we love. But the best items for us are quietly hiding in the dark recess of the upper right corner (close up coming).



Here are the close ups of mustard stuffed burdock root and New Year's sweet omelet roll  伊達巻.



Many of the "must-eat-for-New Year" vegetables were present and well prepared.



Here is the close up of the right upper corner; karasumi 唐墨 and monkfish liver terrine 鮟肝とうふ. We can consume a large amount of sake with these two items alone.



We are like kids in a candy store. For the first few days of the new year, we will be living on these items in the box and other items I prepared. This is the best part of the new year's celebration.

Happy New Year 2015 新年おめでとう ２０１５

Happy New Year 2015. Fourteen hours behind Japan, we welcomed the year 2015 the traditional way here in the U.S. by watching the drop of the ball in Times Square. (This happened well past my bedtime and I had nodded off. My wife, however, was much more alert and woke me with a New Year’s kiss). Does this delegate me to official “senior” status? We all grew older in 2014 as we witnessed those in the generation before us blaze the trail we will inevitably tread ourselves one day. But despite some surgery and other issues it was nonetheless a good year and for that we are thankful. The very first day of 2015 is cold but very sunny for a change in the Washington DC area. As usual, I displayed a “Plastic” Kagami-mochi 鏡餅 decoration containing packaged round mochi inside in our tokonoma 床の間.

2015 is a year of “ram” or “sheep” 羊. So, we took out our “ram” and “sheep” zodiac figures.

Since we are having a cold but sunny day, instead of staying in our “tea room” to imbibe and indulge like we have done most years, we decided to stay under the sun in our sunroom (we prefer to call it conservatory) for our new year’s ozouni お雑煮 soup. We postponed hitting our Sushi Taro supplied “osech” box 寿司太郎のお節重箱 until evening when sun has set. So, I served only items I made with our new year’s soup.

Again, the soup is the same as before. This year, I cut the carrot into plum flower shape, the daikon into pine and bamboo leaf-shape to make “Shou-chiku-bai” 松竹梅 or “pine-bamboo-plum blossom”, an ultimate combination of good luck and fortune in Japan.

As usual, I encased the rice cake “mochi” 餅 in a deep fried tofu pouch 油揚げ tied with gourd peel or Kampyou 干瓢  to accommodate my wife’s request.  I think it is a great way to eat mochi in oden or soup.

On the left, behind the perrila leaf 青紫蘇 is daikon namasu 大根なます garnished with salmon “ikura” イクラ roe. In front is thinly sliced boiled and vinegared octopus ( I got a whole 2 lb boiled and frozen octopus from Fish-For-Sushi). On the right, in the back are kelp-salmon rolls 鮭の昆布巻き, In the middle is simmered “Kabocha” カボチャの煮付 and in the front is “Datemaki” 伊達巻 or sweet egg roll which came out a bit pale this year.

We postpone our indulgence until evening to enjoy a bright day and sunshine.

Three Otoushi appetizers お通し３種類

These are three appetizers or "Otoshi" お通し I served one evening. It is always nice to start a meal with multiple small appetizer dishes but sometimes coming up with them can be a lot of work. Of course I could make things up ahead of time but somehow things don’t seem to work out that way.



The left most is shira-ae 白和え of green asparagus tips and "Fuyu" persimmon 富有柿.



The middle is "mozuki onsen tamago" もずく温泉卵 that is "mozuku" sea weed in sweet vinegar (store bought frozen) and "Onsen" egg on the top garnished with chopped scallion.



I also served deep fried tofu pouch, grilled. I tried to make it cheese filled or "Kitsune" Raclette but I did not have Raclette cheese and used a combination of cheddar and gruyere cheese which melted and ran out during the cooking process. So this became faintly cheese flavored grilled abura-age.

None of these dishes are new but it is really enjoyable to sip sake and taste these different flavors.

Samosa Croquette サモサコロッケ

We had leftover stuffing when we made samosa using egg roll skin. We decided to make a croquette samosa or "サモサコロッケ”. This one also had non-traditional chopped (roasted) pork meat as well.



Instead of the traditional Japanese oval and flat shape ("kobann-gata" 小判型 which is made that way to represent the shape of old Japanese gold currency in the Edo 江戸 period), I made it in the "Tawara" 俵* shape with cheddar cheese in the middle (see below).

*Tawara is cylindrical container woven from dried straw which was often used to store and transport rice in old Japan.



Since "curry" flavor is common in Japanese potato croquette or "potato korokke", we thought samosa seasoning would go well. Indeed this was very good.



We added "tonkatsu" sauce and enjoyed it with a sip of Cabernet.

Asparagus green and white グリーンとホワイト アスパラガス

This is a “nothing” dish but we enjoyed it as a drinking snack. The seasonality of asparagus has been somewhat lost since Peruvian asparagus is readily available in the United States in winter*. Coming from Hokkaido where fresh asparagus indicates the beginning of late spring moving into summer, I miss the anticipation and excitement inherent in the seasonality of the dish. But the fact we can enjoy fresh asparagus all year long provides some compensation. Although green asparagus are very popular, white asparagus is not as widely appreciated. When I was a kid white asparagus only came canned which is rather awful compared to fresh. I have posted about white asparagus before but I made a slightly different dressing for it this time.

*factoid: Believe it or not asparagus have been an “integral” part of the U.S. war on drugs. Under various free trade agreements with Andean countries particularly Peru, asparagus were imported to the United States duty free or with reduced tariff. It was thought this would provide incentives to produce asparagus rather than drugs. (I privately suspect they produce both now). Prior to these Agreements, as was the case in Hokkaido, asparagus were  only available in the United States in late spring early summer. Peruvian asparagus are also produced in Peru in the spring. Since the production occurs south of the equator, however, Peruvian spring/summer is our fall/winter. As a result asparagus are available in the U.S. all year round: from the United States in spring and summer and Peru south of the equator in fall and winter.



I quickly blanched the green asparagus tips (for a few minutes) and then cooled them (by spreading them on a paper towel in a cool place) and served with sesame dressing (Thicker bottom stalks were made into asparagus soup).  The sesame dressing is a mixture of white sesame paste, 1 tbs, sugar 1/2 tsp, soy sauce 1-2 tbs and rice vinegar 1/2 tsp).

The while asparagus can be a bit tricky to cook. First, I removed the bottom of the stalk by snapping it off by bending (where ever it snaps, that is the right spot). I then used a vegetable peeler (Europeans have a special white asparagus peeler) and removed the outer fibrous layer, preserving all the peels. The white asparagus tends to be very brittle and often breaks when it is peeled. The best way to prevent this is to use a sharp peeler and also place the asparagus on a flat surface such as a cutting board and rolling it as you peel. I placed all the peels and root ends as well as peeled white asparagus in a large frying pan with enough water to cover everything (I used filtered water from our home reverse osmosis device). I did not add salt (since I would be reducing the liquid). I cooked it on low flame for 1 hour (could be less depending on how well you peel and how fibrous the outer skin of the asparagus). After taking out the asparagus, I kept simmering the scraps and peels until the liquid was 1/3 of the original amount (the resulting liquid is full of white asparagus flavor). After staining through a fine meshed sieve, I kept this reduced broth in a sealable container for later use.

The first night, I served the asparagus warm.  I heated the cooked spears in a small amount of the asparagus broth. After they were heated through I removed them from the pan and set them aside. I then finished the sauce by adding butter, cream, and seasoning it with salt and white pepper. I then poured the sauce over the asparagus. This is very good for warm white asparagus.

The second time I served the asparagus (picture above), I used the broth to loosen mayonnaise to make a sauce for cold white asparagus. Adding, the concentrated white asparagus both really makes a difference. Although this was not early summer, we still enjoyed the asparagus.