Hanami 2nd day, simmered red snapper 花見二日目、小鯛の煮付け

Our every day grocery store has a small fish section but I occasionally find something good and interesting. The fish monger and his assistant there now recognize me (although we are not yet on a first name basis). One Staurday, they had small red snappers or "ko-dai" 小鯛 which were scaled and cleaned but head and fins intact exactly as I like it. The size was much smaller than usual for red snapper and perfect for serving a whole fish per person. I splurged for two. I thought of either making shio-yaki 塩焼き(or salted and grilled) or nitsuke 煮付け(simmered in broth) and decide to go with the latter. As a side, I also cooked some tofu and scallion.

I served this for hanami 花見 on the second day.



Preparation of the red snapper:
To remove the fishiness, if any, I first washed and removed the gills. Our fish monger did a good job of scaling and gutting the fish. I first boiled water in a frying pan large enough for the two red snappers to fit snugly. I placed both fish in the boiling water quickly turning them over (total of 10 seconds) and then plunged them into ice water, further washing any blood etc from the fish (#1).

Cooking broth (for cooking two red snappers below):
Water 200ml
Sake 100ml
Mirin 3 tbs
Soy sauce 3 tbs
Sugar 1 tbs
Ginger root: 6 thin slices.

Tofu and scallion (amount arbitrary).

The above seasoning is best for eating fish for sake but for eating it with rice, you may want to season it a bit more strongly (more soy sauce and sugar depending on your taste).

I scored the skin (in a cross cut) to prevent the skin from breaking during cooking and to allow better penetration of the flavor (#2).

1. I placed all the ingredients of the cooking broth in a frying pan.
2. As soon as the sugar melted, I put in the fish (#2).  Covered it loosely with aluminum foil (or "otoshibuta" 落としぶた) and let it come to a boil and immediately turned down the flame to simmer (#3). I continued  cooking them for 30 minutes, occasionally spooning the broth over the fish (but not turning the fish over to avoid any breakage) (#4). (I stopped at this step several hours before serving. I kept it covered. I reheated and proceed cooking tofu and scallion just before serving).
3. I removed the fish to serving plates and kept them warm.
4. I turned up the flame and reduced the cooking broth a bit further and added cubes of tofu and scallion (white parts first and then green parts) and cooked them for several minutes. I turned the tofu few times).



I served the fish with tofu and scallion and poured the reduced cooking broth over the fish.  On a second look, I should have taken the pictures without the sauce. In any case, we both enjoyed the fish. Since they were small red snappers, there were lots of bones and required some jedi chop stick action which my wife is better at than I am when it comes to eating fish. She donated the fish eye balls of her fish to me. (Such offerings are the cementing foundation of a good relationship!)  Just for the record, I do not eat the eye balls themselves just the gelatinous stuff behind the eyes.


Although the fish were rather small it had lots of meat and we were getting filled up. We turned on the flood lights and went into night time cherry blossom gazing or "yozakura kenbutsu" 夜桜見物.

Hanami 2nd day Rapini and omelet 花見二日目、菜の花とだし巻き

This was one of the dishes we had for hanami on the 2nd day. The deep green and bright yellow colors are perfect for spring and cherry blossom gazing. If we were in Japan, nanohna 菜の花  or rapeseed plant would have been used but as I posted before, substitutes we have here are either broccoli rabe (or rapini) or broccolini. This time I prepared rapini in the style of nanohana . I  first removed the thick bottoms of the stalks and blanched the remaining tops in salted boiling water for a few minutes and quickly cooled them down in ice water to maintain the bright green color. I squeezed out the excess water and placed them in a paper towel line sealable container for future use. To add bright yellow color in contrast, I made my usual sweet Japanese omelet or dashi maki だし巻き.



After cutting the blanched rapini into 2 inch long portions, I dressed it with "karashi-zouyu" 辛子醤油 which is a mixture of soy sauce, Japanese hot mustard and sugar.



As you can see from the shadow the sun was getting low but we have just started our hanami feast.



This particular rapini was not as bitter as usual. By soaking it in ice water, I may have reduced the bitterness. I sort of enjoy the slight bitterness but the lack of bitterness was just fine with my wife. The combination of the rapini’s still crispy texture and slightly assertive Japanese mustard flavor were a nice contrasted to the soft gentle sweetness of the dashi-maki omelet. This was a good combination in terms of colors, taste, and texture.

Hanami 2nd day with cod roe and nagaimo gelée 花見二日目、長芋とたらこのジェル寄せ

This was Sunday and the 2nd day of hanami 2015. The weather was beautiful and we maximized our time outside by spending most of the day on the deck under a canopy of cherry blossoms. We only went inside to line up food items for the hanami. I made cod roe and nagaimo gelée 長芋とたらこのジェル寄せwhich apparently I have not made for some time. I also served daikon namasu 大根なます with salmon roe, cucumber cup with tobiko roe and store bought Chinese style octopus salad.



The octopus salad was often served as otoshi at Takogrill but this was the first time we (my wife) found it at our regular Japanese grocery store. Besides slices of boiled octopus legs, it has thin strips of seasoned bamboo shoots or menma メンマ with "Chinese-style" seasoning.



Of course, the main item was my tarako and nagaimo gelée. I posted this some years ago. This time instead of Tabasco, I used Sriracha.



All items on this plate were just perfect for sake, we admired the cherry blossoms and tasted a little of these items and sipped sake. Is there any better way to spend a perfect spring day?

Easter Brunch イースターブランチ

This year Easter came very late. By Easter, it was finally getting warm and we enjoyed this Easter brunch outside. My wife made two kinds of hot cross buns several weeks ago and froze them. They were very good, so, we could not wait until the holiday and we have been eating them for some time but luckily we had some left for Easter. We had a hot cross bun, sautéed hot smoked pork (smoked in the Weber some days ago) and special creamy scrambled eggs.



The presentation above leave something to be desired but once you open the egg-shaped glass container. The color of bright yellow, green and red are indeed colors of spring.



This is slight modification of creamy scrambled eggs which was reportedly served to Queen of England a few years ago when she visited Virginia (we are not sure if she tasted it but this dish was created by Patrick O'Connor of Inn at little Washington). He did not add salmon roe just asparagus tips.



Creamy scrambled eggs:
Pasteurized shell eggs: I used home-pasteurized egg using my Sous vide machine. I am not going to cook eggs completely, using pasteurized eggs are safest. Since we god three pasteurized eggs in the refrigerator, I used all three for two servings.
Heavy cream: 2 tsp
Salt and white pepper. to taste.
Butter: 1 tsp

I beat the eggs with the heavy cream, seasoned with salt and white pepper. Although I could have just used a non-stick pan, I decided to use a double boiler. I set the lower pan on low simmer and melted the butter in the upper pan. I then added the egg mixture and started stirring/scraping using a narrow silicon spatula until the eggs were creamy but not over cooked (3-4 minutes). I tasted and added a few more grain of salt. I placed the scrambled egg in the egg shaped Japanese glass container, garnished with blanched green asparagus spear and salmon roe.

This was very creamy and the salmon roe added an additional saltiness. Perfect for a warm Easter Sunday repast.

Take-out sushi and sashimi from Kanpai Sushi テイクアウト寿司

One Friday evening, I stopped by on the way home from work and picked up sushi and sashimi combo from Kanpai Sushi. It came in the usual plastic take-out sushi container. I decide to serve the sashimi and sushi separately by re-plating with additional garnishes.  The cucumber slices, perilla leaves and pickled ginger were just transferred from the container.



I added daikon namasu 大根なます and ikura いくら salmon roe. The sashimi included flounder, hamachi, tuna, and imitation crab. This was certainly good enough for a Friday evening. The pickled ginger was better than what we buy at the Japanese grocery store.



After few more dishes, we had the assorted sushi and rolls as an ending dish. The sushi items included tuna "tekka" roll 鉄火巻き, inari 稲荷. The nigiri are flounder, tuna and tamago. It also included a small sea weed salad which I enhanced by adding yuzu shoyu sauce.



Certainly this is much better than take-out sushi you will find at the grocery stores even from the ones known for "gourmet" food. Compared to other sources of sashimi such as Catalina, with this take-out, we can have the amount we want with more variety and it is also so convenient.

Hanami 1st day, garlic chive egg drop soup 花見1日目、にらのかき卵汁

Nira 韮 or garlic chives are not popular in the U.S. and I rarely see them in our grocery stores. We have been growing garlic chives for many years in our herb garden but I keep forgetting to cut them back and they tend to become very tough. The secret is to keep harvesting them to encourage the growth of tender young shoots. The tender shoots are a very different animal (vegetable?) from the tough woody leaves they turn into if left alone. This year, garlic chives were the first plants pushing out new leaves in our herb garden. I quickly harvested some and made this Japanese classic of garlic chive egg drop soup.



The base of this soup is clear soup seasoned with light colored soy sauce or usukuchi shouyu 薄口醤油. I served this as the first dish on our first day of hanami 花見 with sake. You may think soup may not go with sake but it does.



As you can see below, just a little bit of green shoots were coming out, I harvested selectively from each plant so that I would not kill it. I washed and cut the leaves into one inch lengths.



The broth was made from a "Bonito and Kelp" dashi pack. I added sake, mirin and light colored soy sauce. I put the garlic chives in the simmering soup and cooked it for 1-2 minutes and added blocks of silken tofu. After one more minute, I put in a beaten egg and gently mixed and cut the heat.

My wife was quite impressed with the distinctive flavor of garlic chive and how tender it was. The egg is a perfect match. Although my wife is usually not fond of Japanese soup especially as part of a dinner, this one was a big hit.

Hamachi collar and grilled rice balls はまちのカマと焼きおにぎり

This was the very fist evening the weather was nice enough for us to stay outside and cook over the charcoal fire using our Yakitori grill. With my looftlighter, it is so easy to make charcoal fires. I just make a mound of lump hard wood charcoal in the middle of the grill, ignite the charcoal using my looftlighter from both sides in the base. Ten minutes later, the fire is ready (below).

Coming into this weekend, we had a sashimi/sushi combination take-out from Kanpai sushi. When I picked up the food, I noticed one hamachi collar sitting in their cold case amongst the tuna sashimi blocks. Upon inquiry, I found out it was for sale and I bought it. At the Japanese grocery store, for the first time I can remember, I found a package of frozen bonito tataki as well.



I placed a metal grill (sprayed with pam) over the fire after I spread out the lit charcoals and put on the hamachi (salted).



While we were waiting, we started with the bonito tataki which was wonderful and perfect with cold sake.



When the hamachi collar was done,  I did not have the motivation to make grated daikon. We just ate it as is. We even did not use any soy sauce since it was already nicely salted. The skin of the fish came out a bit more charred than I would have liked but it was crispy with the fat layer caramelized. It tasted much much better than it looked.

At this point, we were getting full (and pleasantly inebriated) in the heady early spring evening and went into the ending "shime" dishes of grilled rice balls. Since I had also bought some fresh deep fried tofu (center still uncooked) "Atsu-age" 厚揚げ, I included it with the rest on the grill.



The tofu was ready in short time. We just enjoyed using the chopped scallion and grated ginger and the sauce borrowed from our bonito tataki.



To make a good crust on a rice takes some time as you can see below.



Of course, I make all three sides flat and wide enough so that they will stand on their own allowing me to make a crust on all the surfaces of the rice balls. I brushed them with a mixture of soy sauce and mirin (1:1 ratio) and finished cooking them.



Since we still had some hot coals going, we nibbled on the crust of the rice balls and then put them back on the grill with the newly exposed white rice face down so the surface could become nicely grilled again. We repeated this process several times until we finished the last crispy piece.

Although the evening was not quite "warm", with the help of our heater (aptly called "Mojave sun"), we stayed outside until we finished our indulgence.