Pork and Potato 豚肉じゃが

Nikijaga 肉じゃが is traditionally made from thinly sliced beef and potato which I posted some years ago. As usual, when I prepared pork tenderloins, I hand-chopped trimmings into ground pork. After consulting with my wife, I made two dishes; mapo tofu 麻婆豆腐 (which I will posted soon) and nikujaga made from ground pork. Either using beef or pork, this is a Japanese version of meat and potato comfort food.



For green, I added steamed green beans at the very end and the noodle is "shirataki" 白滝 or threads made of konnyaku コンニャク (devil's tongue).



The amount of ingredients is arbitrary but these are the estimates.

Potato: 4 large Yukon Gold potato, peeled, eyes removed and cut into 1 inch chunks.
Onion: 2 medium, cut into small wedges.
Pork: about 150grams or 1/3 lb (you can use whatever amount and also thinly sliced rather than ground).
Green beans: Either boiled or steamed, still crispy.

Seasoning:
Dashi broth: 250-300ml or about 1 cup, just enough to cover the ingredients. I used one I previously made from a dashi pack (Bonito and kelp).
Sugar: 1 tbs
Mirin: 2 tbs
Sake: 2tbs
Soy sauce: 2-3 tbs, I added in several increments as I tasted.
Vegetable oil: 1 tbs

In a pot, I added the vegetable oil on medium flame. When the oil was hot, I added the ground pork and cooked until the color chanced (2-3 minutes) and it was done. I added the onion and sautéed until soft (3 more minutes), then added the potato, mixed and added the broth to cover.  When the broth came to a boil I turned down the flame to simmer and added the seasoning. I added the soy sauce in several increments tasting the broth each time. I cooked with a lid on for 20 minutes until the potato was cooked through. I removed the lid and reduce the broth a bit, gently shaking the pot for 5-7 minutes. I added a small amount of soy sauce to give a fresh taste and then added the green beans. After a few more minutes, I turned off the fire and served warm.

I think this is perfect for a small dish served with either wine or sake. I must say, I rather like the pork version of this dish since that is how my mother used to make it and I generally like pork more than beef.

Miso-marinated grilled cod たらの味噌焼き

This was the last dish I made from a filet of cod we got the other day. This is miso-marinated cod with miso-based sauce on the top. This was a one-plate dinner one weekday evening. I broiled the cod after I smeared on the miso-based sauce but it did not char much. Maybe I should have used my kitchen torch.



I served the cod with an eclectic assortment of accompaniments; wedge of skinned tomato (seasoned with salt and olive oil), Cauliflower a la Montoparnasse, steamed green beans with sesame sauce, braised cabbage with onion and lemon* and butter-soy-sauce fried rice with parsley.

* recipe from Cook's illustrated.



Miso marinated cod:
Cod filet; four small filets for two
Miso marinade: red miso, mirin, and sake (2:1:1 ratio), mixed and then placed in a Ziploc bag with the fish filets, the miso marinade to coat all surfaces.

I marinated the cod for 2 days (It should be marinated at least 24 hours) in the refrigerator.

Before cooking, I removed the fish and scraped off the excess miso marinade, washed in cold water and then pat dried (to prevent scorching during cooking and to reduce the saltiness from the marinade. I could have gotten the same effect by separating the marinade from the fish by using a layer of cheese cloth).

I baked the marinated cod in the toaster oven preheated for 375F for 10 minutes on a metal grate over an aluminum foil covered drip pan. (The small footed grate raised the fish slightly above the bottom of the pan and prevented the fish from being steamed/boiled instead of baked).

Meanwhile, I made a miso-sauce for the fish by simply heating the remaining miso marinade and added yuzu juice and more mirin to make it a  looser consistency. I heated the sauce while stirring to thicken it just a bit. I added frozen yuzu peels at the end. I spread the miso-sauce over one side of the fish and switched the toaster oven from bake to broil to make the miso sauce slightly browned and fragrant (it did not char/brown as much as I wanted under the broiler of the toaster oven).

The cod had a nice flakey moist texture and the miso marination and miso sauce both added nutty, salty and sweet flavors and a hint of Yuzu citrus.

So this is a rather complete meal with protein, vegetables and starch.

Savory egg custard with garlic chives ニラ入り茶碗蒸し

This is "chawan mushi" 茶碗蒸し with "nira" garlic chives. When I served garlic chive egg drop soup ニラのかき卵汁 and told my wife that eggs and garlic chives go well together, she suggested I make chawan-mushi with garlic chives. In the interim, I also served "Nira tama" ニラ玉, which is scrambled eggs with garlic chives (I did not take pictures) one weekday evening further reinforceing that this combination was indeed made in heaven. I finally made the garlic chive chawan mushi one weekend.



The garlic chives floated on the surface  but green and light yellow color contrast is nice.



The egg mixture was made the same as before. We tasted this hot first off the steamer. It was nicely creamy as you can see below.



I added shrimp (one cut into two pieces per serving).



I also added small pieces of chicken tenderloin.



Few days later, I served this cold with topping of ikura salmon roe and real wasabi.



Both cold and hot versions were good but I preferred the hot version. The distinct garlic chive flavor was much muted in the cold version. The silky egg custard and the garlic chives are indeed good combination. This time I first soaked the chicken pieces in sake and then coated with potato starch before putting in the chawan-mushi. This made the chicken moist and tender and better than just putting it in "naked".

The below makes 6 small bowls.

Egg mixture:
As before, I used 3 large eggs beaten and added 3 times the volume of seasoned dashi broth. If the eggs are 150ml then the seasoned broth should be 3 times the volume, i.e. 450ml. Dashi broth was made from a "Bonito and kelp" dashi pack. I seasoned it with mirin, light colored soy sauce and "shirodashi" 白だし. Seasoning is always tricky for chawan mushi. Too much will be "too much" especially when eating hot but when you serve it cold you need a bit more seasoning. I err on the side of under-seasoning.

Garlic chive:
The amount is arbitrary. I harvested young tender shoots from our herb garden and cut in 1/4 inch.

Shrimp:
I used 6 shell-on frozen shrimp, thawed in running water and then salted.  I cut in two pieces length wise.

Chicken tenderloin: I used two tenderloins. I first removed the tendon/sinew and sliced it on the bias. I salted lightly and soaked it in sake for 5-10 minutes. I blotted excess moisture and thinly coated it with potato starch or Katakuri-ko 片栗粉.

I first added the shrimp and chicken into the cups and poured in the egg mixture through a fine meshed strainer into 6 cups. I then added the chopped garlic chives.

I placed the 6 cups in a steamer (my electric wok) and steamed them on a constant low steam for 20-30 minutes (first picture).

My wife really liked this, either hot or cold. She thought the chicken was really moist and tender which I agree. This was a very successful dish.

Red snapper in aspic 鯛の煮こごり

I did not make this dish, the dish made itself! We recently had simmered red snapper. (This was the second time we had this dish in recent weeks). We could not finish one whole fish so my wife carefully removed the meat sans bones and placed it in a sealable container, poured in the left over simmering liquid and placed the container in the refrigerator. A few days later, when I tried to serve this leftover fish, I was pleasantly surprised to find this dish; simmered red snapper aspic. In Japanese, this type of jell or aspic is called "nikogori" 煮こごり. When I was a kid this usually happened in winter when our kitchen was very cold and the leftover simmered fish (I remember it was often sand dabs) was covered with its own natural aspic. The best way to eat this was to put it on the top of hot steamed rice. The aspic started melting immediately and seasoned the rice nicely. When I saw what had happened with the red snapper that came out of our fridge, I quickly changed gears and served this eclectic dinner featuring red snapper aspic as the main dish. The rest of the plate came from whatever we had in our refrigerator.



Here is a close-up of the aspic. Although we did not intend to make this dish, this was nicely done.



I made Chinese -style "nibuta" 煮豚 sometime ago and last weekend I also made "ajitsuke tamago"  味付け卵 and served that.



I also served a small slice of Chinese simmered pork and cucumber/onion salad with fresh dill dressed in rice vinegar and Greek yogurt (my wife made the Greek yogurt by draining regular yogurt through cheese cloth in the fridge overnight).



Ajitsuke tamago:
This is the most common topping for ramen noodle. I made soft boiled eggs from home pasteurized shell eggs using my sous vide machine. I then soaked the eggs in the simmering liquid of the pork and let it sit for a few days. This process seasoned the eggs as well as changed the consistency of the egg yolks. I could have made "softer" boiled eggs but this was just fine.

I also served steamed green asparagus that I prepared the prior weekend with mayo. Since we did not have a time to prepare rice, I microwaved leftover rice and garnished with dried ao-nori. By the time, we were ready to eat, the rice was not hot enough to melt the aspic but it was good. Since the seasoning was on the light side, this worked better. This was a rather well balanced eclectic meal

Fish sausage 魚肉ソーセージ

When I was growing up in Japan, we did not know about artisanal sausages which recently have become very popular and readily available in Japan. So, when I was a kid, "sausage" meant this cheap "fish meat" sausage which came in a plastic tube casing in a red cellophane wrapper. I never liked this as a kid but it was very popular as it was easy, cheap, and ready-made source of protein.

One weekend, my wife accompanied me to the Japanese grocery store. When she does, she looks around and always find something I did not see or something I would generally not thought of buying. She found this fish sausage and asked me what it was. I had forgotten about this for many years but since my wife never tasted it I proposed we get it.



That evening, I made this small dish as an appetizer for the red wine we were enjoying. I simply cut the sausage on a slant and sautéed them in melted butter. I was not sure how salty the product was so I did not season it. I served it with mayonnaise mixed with soy sauce and Japanese red pepper flakes. I served sautéed broccoli (previously blanched) and wedges of skinned tomato which were seasoned with salt and pepper.



The one I remember from my childhood was "Maru-ha" まるは meaning a letter "ha" or "は” within a circle but it appears to have changed its logo. This one was made by "Maru-chan" まるちゃんwhich is famous for instant ramen noodles.



Inside is a fish sausage in a transparent plastic tube exactly as I remembered when the cellophane wrapper is removed.



As you can see below, it is nondescript, homogenous and apparently artificially colored (to emulate real meat sausage??) looks almost like plastic.



The taste? Meh! I did not like it as a kid and I do not like it as an adult. Spongy texture without much of any taste, just a mayonnaise delivery system if you have a side of mayo. But this was something from my childhood and finally my wife had a chance to taste it which made it worth getting. She agreed with my assessment (despite the expert sautéing job I did). We did not eat the rest of sausages in the package.

Nama-chirashi 生ちらし

My wife is very particular about vinegared rice or "sushi-meshi" 寿司飯  --it has to have enough vinegar. Not that she is a connoisseur of sushi rice but sushi rice sold in the US at Japanese restaurants or the grocery store is not always good even for a non-connoisseur.  My wife sometimes observes that some sushi must be prepared with the assumption that the American clientele won't notice the vinegar is missing.  Even the sushi rice we make at home is often better than most (which should give you some indication of how bad some sushi rice can be). Since our favorite "izakaya" has been temporarily closed for sometime, one Friday, my wife declared that it was time to administer some vinegared rice so we stopped at Kanpai sushi and took out the assorted sashimi and I made nama-chirashi 生ちらし, which is sashimi on vinegared rice. I also quickly made dashi-maki Japanese omelet with garlic chives or "nira".



I covered the sushi rice with finely cut nori stripes and placed the assorted sashimi,  cucumber slices, vinegared ginger root or "gari" ガリ and mixed sea weed salad on top. The sashimi items included, tuna, hamachi, rock fish, octopus, salmon and imitation crab.



Since we cooked the rice after we came home, we did not do anything special (like adding a sheet of kelp and sake). My wife just prepared rice using our "fuzzy logic" rice cooker (with slightly less water for sushi). I could have made sushi vinegar myself (by adding sugar and salt to rice vinegar), but I used a bottle of Mizukan Sushi vinegar ミツカン寿司酢. To allow the maximum absorption, I heated the sushi vinegar in the microwave (just warm). I used my small cedar sushi-oke 寿司桶 we brought from Kiso 木曽, Japan, some years ago (wood absorbs excess moisture from sushi rice).  I added the cooked rice to the sushi-oke,  poured the sushi vinegar on the rice (about 10% by weight but I usually add as much as the rice can absorb without getting wet). I let it stand for 5 minutes covered with a moist tea towel.  I then mixed the rice with a bamboo rice paddle ("hera" へら) using a cutting motion while my wife fanned it with a Japanese paper fan we keep in the cupboard just for this purpose. The fanning cools the rice more quickly and helps evaporate the excess moisture. I then gathered the rice to one side to make a mound and cover it with the moist tea towel again to let it sit for several more minutes allowing the vinegar to absorb further. I put the sushi rice in a bowl, put on enough nori strips to cover the surface of the rice and then put on the toppings. For this dish, I placed real wasabi on the top. Just before serving I sprinkled sushi shouyu (special soy sauce for sashimi from the bottle).

The original combination sashimi looked like this.



This is after taking off the lid.



We got two orders but I decided that dividing one order was enough for both of us for nama-chirashi. The next day, I served the remaining order into two small appetizer sashimis as seen below.

The nama-chirashi was very satisfactory. Although I thought we made too much sushi rice, I served it all and it all disappeared to the last grain. The sushi rice was seasoned enough and the sashimi was good.  The combination of sushi rice, nori, and sashimi is a mainstay that cannot go wrong.

Asparagus wrapped in country ham スパラガスのハム巻き

We  rarely buy processed meats such as ham. For some reason, we bought this country ham which appears to be salt cured but not smoked. I was thinking that this could be used in lieu of thinly sliced pork belly (or sanmai niku 三枚肉) which is one of the most favored cuts of pork in Japan. Since I had blanched green asparagus, I made asparagus rolls wrapped in the country ham.



Since the asparagus was rather thin (so-called pencil asparagus), I bundled three to make one roll. I used a mixture of flour and water to seal the end of the rolls.



I started cooking in a non-stick frying pan with a little bit of olive oil on medium heat. I turned the rolls over after one to two minutes to brown all the surfaces and make them crispy.



I cut the rolls into three pieces and served (the first picture). My first attempt was a failure. This country ham was so salty that it bordered on inedible although the ham became nicely brown and crispy at the edges, I think no matter how I served this country ham, it would be too salty for us. I noticed that the instructions suggested removing some of the salt by soaking it in slightly warm water for 10 minutes. I tried it and it sort of worked but it was not worth the effort. So unless you are partial to salty country ham, this is not the dish for you. I’m glad we tried it but I think we will stick to using pork belly or bacon.