Another otoshi threesome 又々お通し三種類

These are, again, an otoshi threesome I served one evening.

One of the times I made  cold simmered vegetables which we like to have on hand in the summer, I  included renkon  レンコン or lotus root and kon-nyaku コンニャク or devil's tongue. Both were too much to use in the vegetable dish so I made a small dish of kinpira of renkon and konnyaku.  The konnyaku was par boiled and I cut it into small long strips. The renkon was just sliced thinly. I put a small amount of vegetable oil with a splash of dark toasted sesame oil in a frying pan on medium heat and added flakes of dried red pepper. Then I added the renkon and konyaku and sautéed them until the oil coated the surface. I then braised by adding mirin and soy sauce. I braised it until only a small amount of liquid remained in the pan. I added white roasted sesame seeds and cut the fire. This is a variation of kinpira but the contrast of texture between renkon (firm and crunchy) and the konnyaku (soft but elastic) was perfect.

Since I had pork loin barbecued in my Weber grill (trussed, seasoned with salt, black pepper and finely chopped fresh rosemary and hot smoked/barbecued to the internal temperature of 145F) and also my potato salad, I made rolls. This combination cannot go wrong.

Since I prepared (boiled) harcoverts over the weekend, I just dressed it with sesame paste/mayo dressing (Mayonnaise, white sesame paste, and soy sauce) to complete my threesome.

These were good starters for the evening.

All Matsutake lunch 松茸尽くしの昼食

Since it was Matsutake 松茸 season, we ordered fresh matsutake from Oregon Mushroom as usual. They offer grade #1 and grade#2/#3 with grade#1 being the better matsutake with unopened caps. This year, they had some problem harvesting grade#1 matsutake and there was some delay before we received it. Around the same time, we received Northern American chestnuts from Gilolami farms. So, we have two major ingredients for our annual autumnal feast. I have posted all the chestnut and matsutake recipes I can think of previously.  In any case, on one weekend, we had this all matsutake lunch consisting of matsutake rice 松茸ご飯, chawanmushi 松茸茶碗蒸しand clear soup 松茸のお吸物.

I made the Matsutake rice the night before using the Kamado-san donabe rice cooker.


I heated the rice for lunch just microwaving it and topping it with thin slices of fresh matsutake. I garnished with green part of scallion. The fresh matsutake slices added a wonderful subtle aroma to this dish.



I also made matsutake chawanmushi and clear soup for this lunch. For both, I used a filet of sole which was first salted and sprinkled with sake, cut into bite sized pieces and gently poached (I turned off the heat after I added the sole) in dashi broth for few minutes (as usual, I made it with a dashi pack containing dried bonito flakes and kelp).

In the chawanmush, I only included thinly sliced matsutake and small pieces of poached dover sole filet. I garnished with snow peas (added to the chawanmush at the last 5 minutes of steaming) and garnished with yuzu skin (from frozen packed) and scallion.



I made clear soup from the same prepared broth seasoned with light colored soys sauce or usukuchi shouyu 薄口醤油, a splash of mirin and salt. I added silken tofu from Japan, matsutake slices. I also added yuzu skin and snow pea.



This was a rather luxurious lunch. The sole filet was very mild in flavor and had a melt-in-your-mouth consistency which was very nice.  The chawamushi was lava hot initially but the silky consistency and subtle matsutake aroma were sublime. We succumbed to having our house sake daiginjou "MU" 大吟醸　無--but just one glass.

Pork belly crisp 豚バラの唐揚げ

This is by far one of the most deadly dishes I’ve ever made. After using thinly sliced pork belly for grilled pork belly wrapped fig and asparagus, I made a quick stir-fried dish with pork belly, cabbage, zucchini slices  (I did not take any pictures). From the  remaining pork belly, I made this dish which is essentially pork belly kara-age 豚バラの唐揚げ.

Since the thinly sliced pork belly was not as thin as it would be in Japan as "bara-niku" バラ肉 , I first further thinned the meat using a meat pounder. I cut the pieces into 2-3 inch strips and marinated them in mirin, sake and soy sauce mixture (1:1:2 ratio) for at least several hours (I marinated it overnight). After removing the excess marinade by blotting with paper towel,  I dredged them in potato starch or "katakuriko" 片栗粉 (see below).

Since they are very thin pieces of meat, they fry up quickly. I deep fried them turning once in 350F vegetable oil for 1 minute on each side.

I drained the excess oil on a cooling rack.

I tasted a small piece to make sure it was done properly and it was. Very crispy. I served this on the bed of water cress (I removed all thick stems from the cress) and a wedge of lemon.

It is like crispy bacon but it is probably a bit deadlier and has a nice lightness despite high fat content. Excellent starter snack for red wine.

Pork belly wrapped fig and asparagus イチジクとアスパラのバラ肉巻き

It was another rather nice day in Washington DC and we decided to grill outside. I was sent by-she-who-must-be-obeyed to the near-by Whole food market to get fresh whole fish. I got fish (trout, nothing else looked great). While there I could not resist buying sliced pork belly or "Bara-niku" バラ肉 which is a very common cut in Japan but we can get it only at this store around here. It is essentially "raw" (as in not smoked or cured) bacon meat. Since we were grilling our trout on a charcoal fire, I decided to make skewers using the pork belly. I was not thinking of any specific recipe but, since I also got mission figs at the same store, I decided to wrap the figs with pork belly. I first cut the figs into quarters and then wrapped them and skewered them for grilling.

I also had pencil asparagus already blanched and ready to go, I wrapped them in pork belly as well (below picture). I seasoned it salt and pepper before grilling.

I am sure this is not good for you but grilled pork belly with crispy edges and sweet figs inside (grilling enhanced the sweetness of the fig) cannot go wrong. My wife asked me to grill the pieces more after fig/pork belly was removed from the skewers to make all the surfaces crispy even the ones between the pieces on the skewer.

The asparagus joined in later.

We enjoyed this delectable pork belly as a starter with a red wine.  We then started on our trout. This time, I simply salted them (after scaling).

We really enjoyed the simply prepared trout. We did not need any thing else with the fish. Salt and charcoal fire really make the fish taste good.

As an ending dish, I made our usual grilled rice balls but this time, I made sweet miso sauce (miso, sugar, mirin) and brushed it on towards the end of the cooking (below).

I happened to make beer pickles the prior weekend and served it (daikon, carrot, and cucumber) on the side.

The daikon was the same extremely "hot" one we tasted as grated daikon and was very spicy even as pickles. I sort of liked it but my wife thought her stomach could not take it.

Grilled corn and black bean salad 焼きとうもろこしとブラックビーンのサラダ

This is a variation on a previously (5 years ago) posted recipe corn and black bean salad. After tasting grilled corn in a salad my wife got from the grocery store recently, she was inspired to try grilling rather and the usual microwaving of the corn for this salad. The added grilled flavor made this salad much better.



Since we could not grill the corns outside (mosquitos!), we decided to roast the fresh corn on a cast iron griddle (see below).



We brushed a small amount of olive oil on the corn and grilled it until surface got brown (see below) turning frequently. It smoked a bit although our exhaust fan handled it well. Next time, we may grill it without the oil.



Using a chefs knife and standing up the cob on it's stem, I cut off the corn kernels.

Ingredients:
Grilled fresh corn: 6 ears, kernels removed.
Black beans: 16 oz can, drained.
Jalapeno pepper: 1 veined and seeds removed, finely chopped.
Fresh cilantro: Leaves finely chopped, 1/4 cup
Lemon juice freshly squeezed: 1 -2 lemon(s) or 3 tbs
Olive oil 3 tbs
Ground (roasted) cumin
Salt and ground black pepper

I mixed everything in a bowl and let it stand for several hours in the refrigerator.

The grilling process added a nice grilled flavor. This is a very refreshing summer salad.

Marinated Bonito bowl 鰹のたたきの漬け丼

We had a frozen bonito tataki on Saturday but we had other dishes with it and could not finish it. So I quickly marinated the leftovers in a mixture of mirin, sake and soy sauce (1:1:2 ratio) with all the condiments (grated ginger, slices of garlic and scallion, and perilla) and made a bonito-tataki-zuke donburi 鰹のたたきの漬け丼 for lunch on Sunday. I also topped it with a poached egg with runny yolk (I used pasteurized eggs).



When we had tataki, I also made fried garlic chips in addition to raw ones, which I also added as a garnish.



As usual,  I used frozen rice, mixed in a few teaspoons of sushi vinegar and microwaved to make sushi rice. I placed strips of nori, myoga, and perilla on top followed by slices of marinated tataki of bonito. I poached 2 eggs for 4-5 minutes and then soaked them in ice water to stop the cooking. After draining the eggs on a paper towel, I placed the poached eggs in the center of the bowel. I added more strips of nori, perilla leaves and garlic chips. I poured a small amount of the marinade over the rice as well.

I made miso soup with abura-age, wakame sea weed and tofu. I added thinly sliced myoga since I had it.



I also made cucumber and myoga salad (thinly sliced myoga and cucumber), salted, kneaded and let it stand  for 10 minutes. Moisture squeezed out and then dressed in sushi vinegar.



For leftover control, this was a rather luxurious lunch. The poached egg with runny yolk was also very nice mixed in with rice and bonito.

Tuna and egg plant with mizore dressing 鮪とナスのみぞれ和え

This is another installment in my continuing quest to find a way to enjoy low-quality frozen blocks of yellowfin tuna.  This is based on a recipe I saw on the web. But for a few reasons, this dish turned out to be not as good as it could have been. It is combination of cubes of tuna sashimi, steamed (microwaved) egg plant dressed in grated daikon.



Since we had just harvested fresh myoga, I use it for garnish.



Since I could not get a Japanese eggplant, I used a small Italian eggplant. As per the recipe, I wrapped it in plastic wrap and placed it in a silicon microwave container and microwaved it for a few minutes then let it cool with the wrap still on. After it reached room temperature, I cooled it further in the refrigerator. I cut both the eggplant and tuna into similar sized block pieces. I gave it my usual "yubiki" treatment and then coated with sashimi soy sauce (below).



I grated the daikon and drained out the liquid using a fine mesh strainer. I added a small amount of rice vinegar and soy sauce and mixed the tuna and eggplant with the grated daikon.

We had two problems with this particular dish and they both had to do with the quality of the ingredients we used (not the tuna this time). One was that the grated daikon was ridiculously and atomically hot! This is a bit unusual but daikon is from the horseradish family and some, like this one, exhibit their heritage to greater or lesser degrees. We actually had to remove the daikon in order to be able to eat the rest of the dish. Another problem was the quality of the egg plant. It had good amount of seeds, which I mostly removed, but it did not have the wonderful texture and taste of a Japanese eggplant. I would like to try this dish again using a milder daikon and better quality egg plant.