Miso soup panna cotta 味噌汁のパンナコッタ

My wife came up with the idea of making miso soup in a solid form. (This was a natural progression from the various other panna cottas she has made recently. Also this is what happens when she is turned loose with gelatin; she was well-known in the past for her various "gelatin" concoctions). The idea appealed to me because I like to have miso soup with any meal (even breakfast). My wife on the other hand does not like having soup in the evening. So, if we could come up with a dish which had the taste of miso soup but was not liquid it would be a win-win for both my wife and myself.  This recipe was my first attempt. I intended to recreate miso soup with potato, onion, and wakame seaweed ワカメ、ジャガイモと玉ねぎの味噌汁. The reason I choose this particular combination of ingredients is a long story.*

*Digression alert: When my late-brother and I were small (probably I was a just in 1st grade), my late-father was home but my mother was out (probably attending a PTA meeting or something). My father almost never cooked but when 4 pm came around, he suggested "we must be hungry" and decided to cook something for us (in retrospect, I suspect he was the one who was hungry and could not wait my mother to come home). In any case, he made rice (using an electric rice cooker) and miso soup made of potato, onion, and wakame seaweed. When my mother arrived back home with some ready-made side dishes for supper, she was mighty miffed to find us finishing up a supper of rice and soup. But somehow, the taste of this miso soup remains a favorite for me.

The picture below shows the miso soup panna cotta, which included potato and onion, served with cucumber, wakame seaweed, and red radish as garnish. To make it interesting I included unflavored soy milk and silken tofu (the white squares).

I decided to add "sumiso" 酢味噌 (miso, rice vinegar and sugar) sauce as well.

I also put sumiso sauce on the top of the panna cotta.

The panna cotta had a smooth texture and a gentle miso flavor. We could taste the sweetness of the onion but the addition of soy milk may have made it taste a bit vague or muted. The sumiso sauce also overwhelmed the dish. So, next day, I served the panna cotta simply with wakame seaweed and thinly sliced scallion.

This tasted better and closer to the original miso soup taste but there is room for improvement.

Ingredients (about 2 servings):

1 cup Dried fish and kelp broth (from bashi pack).

1 cup unflavored soy milk

1 large white potato, peeled and cut into a dice.

1 large onion, cut into thin strips

1/4 cup wakame seaweed (I used "raw" salt preserved one).

2 tbs Miso

2 envelopes of unflavored powdered gelatin

1/3 silken tofu

Directions:

1. I cooked the potato in the broth until soft (15 minutes) and added onion and cooked another 5 minutes (left in the picture below). 

2. I dissolved the miso. I added more as I tasted. I needed to season it rather strongly since it would be diluted by the addition of soy milk.

3. I added the miso soup into a blender and pureed it smooth.

4. Meanwhile, I put soy milk in a pan, sprinkled unflavored powdered gelatin (two envelopes) on the surface to bloom. I gently heated up and dissolved the gelatin using a wire whisk (right in the picture below). I combined the miso soup and soy milk  with the dissolved gelatin.

5. I placed small cubes of tofu in the bottom of a small ramekin and poured the mixture on top.

6. I refrigerated until set.

7. Like the other  panna cotta dishes we made,  it will come out without any problem by running the thin blade of a knife around the perimeter and introducing air to the bottom of the ramekin. 

The two serving variations above were certainly "edible" but we were not satisfied. My wife suggested leaving out the soy milk. She also suggested serving the potato around the panna cotta rather than pureed in it. I will certainly incorporate her suggestions.  I am now on a mission to make the perfect miso soup panna cotta. 

Baked Cauliflower with Chimichurri sauce オーブン焼きカリフラワーのチミチュリソース

We try to make some vegetable dishes which can be eaten during the work week. We had a large head of cauliflower from last week which needed to be prepared. My wife spotted a recipe which is "Cauliflower steak with Chimichurri sauce". Although we are not sold on the idea of thick slab of cauliflower (it was equated with a steak in the original recipe), the idea of baked cauliflower with chimuchurri sauce sounded good. So, instead, we baked cauliflower florets and dressed them with chimuchurri sauce.

The florets were nicely browed (although a bit overcooked).

The chimuchurri sauce was very good with fresh herbs.

Ingredients (with our modifications)

For Chimuchurri sauce

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil (for the Chimuchurri)

1 garlic clove, minced

1 shallot, finely chopped

1 jalapeño pepper, large, deveined and seeded and finely chopped

3/4 teaspoon salt, divided

2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh oregano

2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh thyme

2 tablespoons water

2 teaspoons sherry vinegar (we used rice vinegar).

1/2 teaspoon paprika (we used smoked paprika)

3 tablespoons finely chopped flat-leaf parsley.

For Cauliflower

1 large head cauliflower (about 3 pounds), separated into florets.

Freshly ground pepper to taste

2 tbs olive oil (for coating the cookie sheet and the cauliflower).

Directions.

1. Combine oil, garlic, jalapeño, shallot and 1/4 teaspoon salt in a small frying pan. Cook over medium heat just until the garlic starts to sizzle, 2 to 4 minutes, but don’t let it brown. Remove from heat and stir in oregano, thyme, water, vinegar and paprika. Cover and set aside (#3).
2. Preheat oven to 450°F. Coat a cookie sheet with olive oil (we used a non-stick cookie sheet).
3. Toss the cauliflower florets with olive oil and season with the remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt and pepper.
4. Roast the cauliflower, gently turning once halfway through, until browned and the stems feel tender when pierced with a bamboo skewer, 15 minutes (we baked 18 minutes which was a bit too long) (#1 and 2).
5. Just before serving, stir parsley into the reserved herb sauce and season with pepper. Dress the cauliflower florets (#4) with the sauce (#5 and 6).

Th fresh herbs in chimuchurri sauce were very good. It was good warm. We later served cold which was also very good. We may even try real steak with this chimuchurri sauce.

Barbecued leg of lamb and white navy beans ラムのバーベキューとネービービーンズ

This was our Memorial day barbecue. Strictly speaking, this is not a barbecue according to the traditional definition of a barbecue as "low temperature long cooking with smoke".  Nonetheless, for our purposes, we will call it barbecue. While thinking about what we could serve with the lamb, I mused that it would be nice to have something different. My wife remembered that several times in the past we served lamb with beans and found this recipe for navy beans ネービービーンズ . The navy bean dish was a group production. I was chief-in-charge of chopping (and as you will see there is a fair amount of chopping involved.)  My wife prepared the beans, spices, put it together and cooked it.  I made an instant reduced port wine sauce to pour over the meat and sautéed green beans as a side .

Lamb and beans (both the navy and green) are a good combination .

The original recipe was called "Braised lamb shanks with white beans". We just used the white bean part of the recipe and served it with our barbecued leg of lamb.

Ingredients: (4 servings):
For beans
    2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
    2 small onions, chopped fine
    2 small carrots, chopped fine
    2 celery ribs, chopped fine
    3 garlic cloves, minced
    2 cups cooked white beans (preferably Great Northern or navy). We used canned Navy beans rinsed and drained.
    chicken broth just to cover beans
    2 tablespoons unsalted butter
    1 bay leaf

For gremolata
    3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves (preferably flat-leafed)
    1 teaspoon freshly grated lemon zest (about 1 lemon)
    3 garlic cloves, minced

Directions:
For Beans

1. In a saucepan heat oil over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking and cook onions, carrots, celery, and garlic, stirring, 2 or 3 minutes (#1, below). 
2. Add beans, enough chicken broth to just cover the beans, butter, and bay leaf and cook over moderate heat, stirring occasionally and adding enough remaining broth to keep beans moist and to reach a creamy consistency, about 30 minutes (#2, below). 
3. Discard bay leaf and add half of gremolata and salt and pepper to taste (#4, below).

For gremolata:

I hand chopped garlic, parsley and prepared the lemon zest using micro-grater. (#3 below)

We tasted the white beans (#1, below). Because of the gremolata, it had a nice bright fresh taste of lemon, garlic and parsley. The white beans were creamy with the savory and slightly sweet flavors of all the carrots, celery and onion that was added. The leg of lamb was deboned, seasoned with salt, black pepper and chopped fresh rosemary mixed with olive oil. Using indirect heat, I barbecued it in my Weber grill with added wood chips until the thickest center registered 140F (#2, below). I let it rest for 10 minutes. It was pink inside but I could have  cooked it a bit less. During the rest period, quite a good amount of au jus accumulated. I decided to make a quick sauce (#4, below). I poured the au jus into a frying pan, added port wine (cheap Taylor port I keep for cooking), threw in sprigs of fresh rosemary and reduced it by half, I added a small amount of balsamic vinegar and finished it with pats of cold butter.

This was a quite satisfactory Memorial day barbecue. Although a bit overcooked, the lamb had a nice lamb-y flavor and rosemary scent was a perfect combination. The sauce added a slight sweet and sour taste and moisten the meat. The white beans were a perfect accompaniment for the lamb. I am sure I opened a nice red for this dinner but at this point, I cannot remember what we had.

Egg-in breakfast muffins 卵とベーコン入り朝食マフィン

My wife cannot resist interesting bread recipes especially ones that involve some kind of stuffing inside. She found this recipe on line and she had to try it. These breakfast muffins have cheese and bacon in the dough and encase an egg; either a whole or scrambled. It is an all inclusive portable breakfast. (If served on a stick it would classify as a "breakfast-on-a-stick" at the local state fair).  We were thinking that we might take this to work for breakfast and decided to make the scrambled egg version since this can be, reportedly,  be frozen while the one made with a whole egg cannot because the egg white becomes rubbery. We served this as a weekend lunch with my wife's ribbon salad.

As you can see, the scrambled eggs are stuffed inside.

Ingredients:

Flavorings (#4)

4 strips of bacon, cooked crisp, drained on paper towel (#2) and chopped (#4).

½ cup shallots, chopped, sautéed in bacon fat using the same pan in which the bacon was cooked and excess dripping poured out (#3).

2 cups grated cheddar cheese (we used smoked gouda and English cheddar)

Scrambled eggs: 5 eggs plus cream, seasonings and butter (#1).

Dry Ingredients

2 1/2  cups All purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

Wet Ingredients (#4)

1 cup buttermilk

1 tsp salt

10 tsp Greek yogurt (original recipe called for sour cream)

4 tbs  melted butter

2 eggs

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 180C/350F. 
2. Grease muffin tins with with butter (original recipe calls for "Texas muffin tin to accommodate a whole raw egg in each muffin, we used a regular muffin tin and scrambled eggs crumbled into small pieces).
3. Place Dry Ingredients in a bowl and mix to combine.
4. Whisk Wet Ingredients in a separate bowl.
5. Pour the Wet Ingredients into the Dry Ingredients until just combined. Do not over mix. 
6. Fold in Flavorings, including cooked bacon (#5).
7. Place 3 tbsp of the batter into 4 muffin tin. Bang the tin to flatten the batter.
8. Make a divot in the batter and put in the scrambled egg (or crack in a raw egg if using a larger tin and so prefer). (#6)
9. Divide the remaining batter between each hole to cover the egg. (#6) shows covered eggs in front and uncovered eggs in back.
10. Brush the muffins with melted butter (optional), then bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown.
11. Remove from oven and allow to rest for 5 minutes before turning out onto a cooling rack. (#7 and 8)
12. Best served warm.

This was good and the smell when cooking was divine but the amount of work and fat content may make us think twice before making this one again. We could possibly achieve the same effect by just baking a biscuit, cutting it in half horizontally and adding scrambled egg. Nevertheless, the idea is very interesting and we will take this to work for breakfast next week.

Tuna tartar variation with Jalapeno pepper 鮪のなめろうハロペニョペッパー入り

This is "a variation on the theme of tuna namerou 鮪のなめろう".  I think two of our favorite ways  to enjoy the block of low-quality but readily available frozen yellowfin tuna are "namerou" and "negitoro" ネギトロ. I could have made this tuna namerou as before but the limitation of what I had in terms of the ingredients forced me to make some changes. I also borrowed some ideas from making "negitro".  I garnished it with thin slices of Jalapeno pepper hinting at  what this namerou contains.

These two servings are made from a half of the tuna block but it turned out to be  quite a lot (for us, at least). 

Making this is rather simple. This time, modifications included using Vidalia onion (in stead of scallion) and Jalapeno pepper.  I cut the tuna into small cubes, added finely chopped, deseeded, and deveined Jalapeno pepper (half of large one), finely chopped Vidalia onion (half of medium sized) and miso (I added a bit more later after I tasted it). In addition, I added the Spanish olive oil we really like. As I "hit" or "tataku" 叩くit with my heavy chef's knife, I gradually added the olive oil to incorporate (instead of using mayonnaise when making negitoro) until it became the pasty consistency and still some small chunks are remaining. I also add a little bit more olive oil on the top as I served this.

Although we started the evening with a Napa cab, we switched to cold sake (We happened to have "Dassai" 獺祭 daiginjo 大吟醸 from Yamaguchi 山口県 prefecture). We thought the addition of Jalapeno to this dish was a good one. It added a fresh pepper taste without adding any heat (since I removed the veins and seeds). Although quite subtle, the addition of olive oil also added to the  unctuous texture.  The amount of miso was just right and we could really taste nice miso flavors with nutty-saltiness. I had a few more dishes planned but at this point, we were quite full.

Fried bamboo shoot stuffed with pork and shrimp たけのこの贅沢揚げ

This recipe used the top 2/3 of the bamboo shoot left over after I made "Tosa-ni"土佐煮. The bamboo shoot is stuffed with a mixture of pork and shrimp based on a recipe I saw on line. Since I did not have access to "kinome" 木の芽, I simply added fried green beans as a green.

Here is a close up of another serving.

Ingredients (2 servings):

Bamboo shoot, one package, pre-boiled, top 2/3 (or "Hosaki" 穂先), cut into 6 wedges (#1), carefully cut from the outer surface to make a pouch but not cut it through.

Ground pork, 40g (I hand chopped pork butt I had).

Shrimp, 60g (I used frozen, thawed and chopped finely until it had a paste like consistency)

Scallion, one, white part, finely chopped.

Ginger root, finely chopped (to taste)

Salt, to taste

Soy sauce, 1/2 tsp

Sake, 1/2 tsp

White pepper, to taste

Flour for dredging

Oil (I used peanut oil) for frying

Directions:

Mix all the ingredients above except for bamboo shoot (by hand or using a silicon spatula) until everything sticks together (#2)

Dredge the wedges of bamboo shoot with flour including inside the slits and stuff the meat (#2) into the slits. Dredge the surface of the stuffing as well (#3).

Shallow fry (1/2 inch deep oil), turning frequently to slightly brown the stuffing and to make all sides crispy (flour makes thin crust).

Drain the oil and serve hot.

This is a very nice dish. It was very hot and my wife had to wait several minutes for it to cool down. By frying, bamboo shoot developed very good strong bamboo shoot flavor while still retaining a nice crunch. The stuffing of pork and shrimp is very flavorful with a nice texture. The shrimp really give a nice firmer texture.  We had this with cold sake which was a perfect match.

Tuna, asparagus and poached egg 鮪漬けの炙りとアスパラガスの温玉添え

The type of tuna sashimi blocks 鮪の刺身の冊 I can get at our Japanese grocery store is limited to frozen ahi or yellowfin tuna キハダマグロ, which was treated with carbon monoxide to give it a bright red color (carbon monoxide sounds bad but it is no health hazard when used on food like this). I always keep a tuna block in our freezer "just-in-case". I have to rotate the stock every several months since unlike wine, the tuna does not improve with time.  Since I bought a new tuna block when I stopped by our Japanese grocery store this weekend, I took the old one out of the freezer to thaw. I have posted  many times how to make this low-quality tuna sashimi palatable. One of the ways is to make "Zuke" 漬けor marinated tuna.  So, I sliced half of the tuna sashimi block and marinated it in a "Goma-dare" ゴマだれ (see below) the night before. This time, I did not do "Yubiki" 湯引き or cooking the surface by dunking it in boiling water and then ice water to halt the cooking.  I was not sure how I would serve this "zuke maguro" (marinated tuna) until I learned we were starting the evening with red wine. Then the "path" became pretty clear;

I had to come up with something that went well with red wine.  This dish was the result. I was inspired by  this picture in one of the food blogs I follow. This dish is grilled asparagus, poached egg with grated Pecorino Romano and botargo.  Since I did not have botargo or karasumi からすみ, I omitted it and used grated Parmigiano-Reggiano instead of Pecorino Romano. Seared zuke tuna is my addition. I poached the eggs as I posted before. 

Since I prepared green asparagus that morning, this was an easy dish to put together once I decided what I would make. 

Tuna preparation:

1. I thawed the frozen block of tuna overnight in the refrigerator. I sliced half of the block into half inch thick slices.
2. This time I made "Goma-dare" for marinade.  I first dry roasted white sesame seeds in a dry frying pan (1 tsp) until slightly darkened and fragrant (the sesame was already roasted but re-roasting it add much more flavor). I ground the seeds in a Japanese Suribachi すり鉢 mortar. I then added mirin, sake and soy sauce in a ratio of 1:1:2.
3. I placed the tuna and the marinade in a Ziploc bag to make sure all the surface of the tuna was covered with marinade and removed as much air from the bag as I could. I sealed the bag and kept it in the refrigerator overnight.
4. The next evening, I took out the tuna slices, blotted the excess marinade from the surface (picture below) and cut one slice into two.

I thought searing one of the surfaces would add texture and a beef-like flavor which would go better with red wine. I seared the pieces two ways; one by using a kitchen blow torch (those are the ones with the black specs in the picture below) and the other seared in a frying pan with melted butter (the shiny ones on the tops row and right of bottom row).  

Asparagus prepration:

I got thick spears of green asparagus from our grocery store. I removed the bottom by simply bending and breaking it. Using a vegetable peeler, I peeled the bottom half of the skin and blanched the stalk in salted water. Just before assembling this dish, I quickly sautéed it in melted butter and seasoned with salt and black pepper.

Assembly:

I cut the asparagus on the bias into 3-4 pieces. I arranged the pieces to look like a whole uncut asparagus spear, resting diagonally on a square plate. I arranged the two kinds of seared tuna squares on one side of the asparagus and placed a poached egg on the other side. I grated Parmisiano-Reggiano on top.

This dish followed my octopus carpaccio and we enjoyed it with a glass of Louse M. Martini Napa Cab as before. The tuna was seasoned well from the marinade and became firmer than non-marinated tuna. Searing added beef like flavor but we could not tell the differences between torched vs. pan seared. The combination of runny warm yolk and asparagus cannot go wrong. This dish really went well with the California Cab we were having.