Chicken kara-age and lotus root nanban 鶏の唐揚げピリ辛南蛮漬け

I bought bone-in chicken thighs one weekend, thinking I would make something with it but it did not happen. A week later, when I checked the chicken, it was still good (some chicken we buy at our grocery store goes bad very quickly). So I decide to try this recipe which I saw on-line. It is essentially chicken nanban 鳥の南蛮漬けwith some interesting variations.

The marinade is a bit more assertive than my usual marinade for nanban but the high acidity cut through the oiliness of the fried chicken. The crispy renkon slices were also nice but, next time I will not marinade the renkon chips because they became soggy. I'll serve them crispy on the side.

For onions, I used Vidalia onion.

The marinade clung to the crust on the chicken which created an interesting surface that delivered layers of flavor.

Ingredients (4 servings):

Chicken thighs, 4, deboned and excess skin and fat removed. Cut into a bite sized pieces.

Seasoning for chicken; Soy sauce  (1 tbs), sake (1 tbs) and roasted sesame oil (1 tsp)

Potato starch for dredging 

Oil for frying ( I used peanut oil)

Renkon (Lotus root), one package cleaned and boiled. cut into thin (2-3mm thick) rounds, excess moisture blotted out using paper towel.

For Marinade:

Lemon juice (2tbs), rice vinegar (2tbs), soy sauce (2 tbs)

Dried small Japanese hot red pepper (赤唐辛子), seeds removed, 2

Sugar (2 tsp)

Garlic, grated 1/2 tsp

Ginger, grated 1/2 tsp

Black pepper for taste

Onion, one small, halved, then sliced thinly, salted and kneaded and left for 5 minutes and then soaked in water (I used filtered water) for 10 minutes, drained and moisture squeezed out

Directions:

1. I placed the chicken in a Ziploc bag, added the seasonings, massaged it, and removed as much air as I could and let it marinade for at least 30 minutes at room temperature or overnight in the refrigerator.

2. I mixed all ingredients for the marinade and added the onion in a flat sealable container.

3. Fried the renkon rounds in 350F oil for 1 minutes each side or until the renkon rounds got brown and crispy (it is a great snack as is with some salt, see below).

3. I removed the chicken and blotted the excess moisture from the surface. I dredged it with potato starch or katakur-ko 片栗粉 and fried in 350F oil (I used a shallow frying method. Some believe, this method will let the moisture evaporate more easily and make a crispy surface but I did it just because it uses less oil). This time I double fried the chicken using a higher temperature for the second frying but this is probably not necessary. Of course, we snacked on the chicken immediately after it came out of the oil and hit the draining rack.

4. I added the fried chicken and renkon to the marinade while they were hot and gently mixed (I just turned the sealable container upside down to make sure the marinade make contact with all the surfaces.)

This is a good dish, although frying the chicken is a bit of work. I will definitely not put the renkon chips in the marinade next time to keep them crispy. This dish will go well with beer or cold sake but the marinade is too acidic for wine.

P.S. Few days later, I served the remaining chicken with renkon chips which were not soaked in the marinade. The renkon chips were crisp and much better than the marinated soggy chips. Then, my wife said we should enjoy the chicken and renkon separately. I agree. The renkon chips are a great snack by them selves and we do not see the point of combining them with chicken nanban.

Blueberry scones ブルーベリースコーン

Local blueberries are in season and there was a special at the local grocery store. I bought 4 packages of blueberries and my wife made blueberry bread. But two packages of blueberries were left. So, she decided to make blueberry scones.

Here are blueberry scones on the left and blueberry bread on the right just out of the oven.

Ingredients:

4 cups AP flour

4 Tbs. sugar (After tasting it, my wife thought maybe a bit more sugar and vanilla flavor would be good)

4 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

10 Tbs. cold butter

1 cup cold milk

2 large eggs

8 oz cheese (brie, goat cheese, or cream cheese) broken into bits

8 oz blueberries. 

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. In a large bowl mix the dry ingredients from AP flour to butter. Use a pastry knife to cut the butter into pea sized pieces. Add the cheese and cut into pea sized pieces with the pastry knife. In another bowl combine the wet ingredients. Add the wet ingredients to the dry (#1). Fold in the blueberries (#2). The dough was extremely stiff and it was difficult to mix in the blueberries. Some of them inevitably got crushed. Cut into triangles or circles (#3). Bake in oven for 15 to 20 Minutes until golden brown (#4). 

This is like a biscuit with blueberries in it. It is very different from blueberry quick bread. We like it very much. It is perfect for breakfast or , perhaps, afternoon tea.

Lobster Bisque with carb meat カニ肉入りロブスタービスク

When I went to our regular grocery store, they had a special on previously frozen (and just starting to thaw) lobster tails at the fish counter. I got two and made sous vide butter poached lobster tails. As usual, I made lobster bisque from the shell. Compared to whole lobsters, the amount of shells and resulting bisque was just enough for 2 small servings. I served this with a mound of lump crab meat as a part of weekend lunch which was proceeded by avocado tofu.

Since I had tobiko roe, I used it as a garnish and also small cubes of cucumber (American mini-cucumber).

We had this with my baguette. As my wife says, she likes the lobster bisque almost more than eating lobster itself because it is the distilled essence of lobster without the work of cracking the shell. The addition of crab meat and tobiko roe made this bisque a little bit special.

Watermelon ribbon salad スイカのリボンサラダ

This is a variation of my wife's ribbon salad.  We bought a regular size watermelon last weekend. I "processed" it so that it was all cut up and ready to go as fruit to take to work in small containers. But a whole regular sized water melon (as opposed to a mini-water melon) was too much for us to finish in one week. My wife remembered that she used to make a variation on ribbon salad using watermelon.  I served it with cucumber salad and broccoli as one of the small dishes for the evening.

The center layer is "wasabi" flavored cottage cheese.

Ingredients:

Red layer

3/4 cup buttermilk

1 lime squeezed

2 3/4 cup watermelon puree

2 envelopes unflavored gelatin

White layer

1 envelop gelatin

1/4 cup milk or cream

1 3/4 cup cottage cheese mashed

1/4 cup mayonnaise

1/4 tsp salt 

2 limes squeezed

1 tbs wasabi (or to taste) 

Puree the watermelon. Take 1/2 cup of the puree and use it to bloom the gelatin. Heat the bloomed gelatin in the microwave for 30 seconds. Add the gelatin to the rest of the puree. Pour half the puree into the bottom of the casserole dish and let it jell in the refrigerator until solid. (Keep the remaining puree at room temperature and it will stay liquid.) 

Mash the cottage cheese. Add the mayo, salt, lime juice. Take some of the cottage cheese mixture, add it to a small bowl and use it to soften the wasabi. The amount of wasabi is basically to taste. I found that the cottage cheese tends to calm it down so I end up putting in a fairly large amount. Once it has been homogenized into the amount in the small bowl add it to the large bowl and stir until it is incorporated. Bloom the gelatin in the milk. Heat in the microwave for 30 seconds until melted. Add to the bowl of cottage cheese. Pour the cottage cheese over the watermelon layer and cool until solid. 

Add the remaining watermelon puree on top of the cottage cheese layer and cool until solidified. 

This is a refreshing summer side dish. The watermelon flavor comes through and goes very well with the cottage cheese layer. The wasabi really makes this dish. Because of the cottage cheese and mayo the wasabi is not "clean out your sinuses" intense.  Instead it adds a nice little bite that goes well with watermelon and adds to the refreshing flavor. Also mayo and wasabi are another surprisingly good flavor combination. This is a good variation for my wife's historic ribbon salad. 

BTW the pureed watermelon served with wasabi cream makes a very nice cold melon soup. 

Cold pasta with cherry tomato トマトの冷製パスタ

I saw some nice looking cherry tomatoes in a pouch at the grocery store and bought them. Then, I saw this recipe on line and decided to try it as a Sunday lunch. It was an unusually nice weekend and we spent as much time as we could on our deck. This is a wonderful dish and we will make this again. It will become one of our regular dishes especially in the hot summer months.

Although I was sure we had some, I could not find any Angel hair pasta in our pantry (or Capellini) (which was used in the original recipe). So I used Linguine instead. The packaged Prosciutto  from our regular grocery store was not the best quality but it was OK. 

Ingredients: (for 2 servings):

Cherry tomatoes, 1 package (about 10, they were rather large for cherry tomatoes)

Olive oil, 1 tbs (or more depending on your preference).

Garlic, small clove, crashed using a garlic press.

Japanese concentrated (x3) sauce for noodles or "Mentsuyu" めんつゆ,  1 tsp

Salt and pepper to taste

Linguini, dried, 1/3 package

Japanese concentrated (x3) sauce for noodles,  1 tsp, to season the noodle.

Fresh basil

Proscuitto, 4 (2 slices per serving).

Directions:

1. Skin the cherry tomatoes. I made a shallow "cross" on the stem end and plunged them into boiling water for 5 seconds and then transferred to an ice water bath. When cooled, I removed the skin(#1)
2. I placed half of the cherry tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, and Japanese noodle sauce in the mixing container for an immersion blender. I blended until it made an emulsion (#2). I tasted and seasoned with salt and pepper.
3. I cut the remaining cherry tomatoes into quarters (or halves if they were small) and placed them in the emulsion. I covered the container and placed it in the refrigerator (I did this in the morning).
4. I cooked the linguine as per the package instructions (12 minutes in salted rapidly boiling water).
5. I washed the noodles in cold running water and drained.
6. I placed the noodles in a bowl and added the Japanese noodle sauce, tossed and drained excess sauce. I further blotted excess moisture using paper towels (#3) as per the original recipe (I did this also in the morning, coved it and placed in the refrigerator).
7. At lunch time, I added the sauce to the noodle, added hand-torn fresh basil leaves and gently tossed and plated it (#4).
8. I arranged strips of prosciutto, basel, and drizzled on some of our good olive oil.

This was a unqualified success. The sauce was wonderful. It had a very light but refreshingly intense tomato flavor. It was great probably because the cherry tomatoes were very ripe and good. The linguini actually worked well. My wife thought this was a Japanese udon noodle (thin Inaniwa kind 稲庭うどん). It had some al dente texture remaining but worked nicely. The Japanese noodle sauce was not recognizable as such but definitely added a je ne sais quoi flavor to the sauce and noodles ("Kakushi-aji" 隠し味 or hidden taste). The addition of prosciutto was also good. Although the prosciutto was not of the best quality, its saltiness really contrasted with the sweet and slightly sour taste of the sauce. Overall, we enjoyed this dish. It is perfect for a hot summer day lunch while lounging on the deck.

P.S. Since this was a really good dish, I made it a few days later with angel hair pasta and Campari tomato. Instead of hand-torn basil, I made a chiffonade which I thought would mix in better.

I even made a rose of prosciutto.

Angel hair past (capellini) appears to hold more sauce since the total surface area is larger than linguini for the same amount of pasta. We liked both.

Canned Mackerel canapé サバのアメリカ版缶詰のカナッペ

We tend to think canned food can last forever but apparently that is not the case. All canned goods have an expiration date. Although even when past its expiration date, canned food may still be quite good. When I see that the can is several years past its expiration date, however, I throw it out. I found several cans of sardines and anchovies in our pantry which fell into this category.  So the next time I was at the grocery store, I bought some replacement cans, one of which was canned mackerel in olive oil. Japanese canned mackerel サバ缶 is usual bone-in, cut cross-wise or "dou-giri" 胴切, it is either cooked in water or seasoned with miso or soy sauce. Either way, the bone is soft - probably pressure cooked - and can be eaten. The one I bought was boneless fillets packed in oil by "bumble bee tuna" company. I decided to use it to make a small canapé.

On the "everything flat bread", I smeared a mixture of our favorite Spanish olive oil and my wife's strained yogurt (Greek yogurt) with chopped fresh dill. I seasoned it with salt and freshly cracked black pepper. I then placed a skinned and sliced Campari tomato on top. Finally, I topped the stack with the filet of mackerel. 

This was rather good. The mackerel was neutral tasting. Despite being canned in olive oil it was not oily and the usual strong favor was not prominent. The Greek yogurt with olive oil is as good or better than sour cream (our home made creme fraiche could have been better, though).

Avocado Tofu アボカド豆腐

We usually keep some avocados on hand. I buy the greenest and hardest avocados I can find and let them ripen on the counter top. The reason I buy only unripened avocados is because already ripened avocados from grocery store look like they have been used as hockey pucks; they are usually extremely blemished with brown soft spots that need to be cut out. Often, the only thing that can be done is to "euthanize" the poor things. For this reason they are not even worth buying. I let the rock-hard ones I buy ripen for a few days on the counter in the kitchen. When they start to ripen I move them to the refrigerator. That way, I have a steady supply of avocados all week. I usually slice them and put it in the sandwiches we take to work. I often make leftover avocados into guacamole. This weekend I made one into guacamole but still had one left. I happened to come across this recipe which was originally from the blog by a Japanese woman who lives in France. This looked interesting. Since my wife (and I)  are into gelatin based dishes, I made this avocado tofu.

Since we have not yet harvested new myoga from our backyard, I garnished this with my home-made pickled myoga みょうがの甘酢漬け (from the last year season), wasabi and perilla. For sauce, I just repurposed the broth from my summer cold simmered vegetables.

The below was servings for light lunch over the weekend, I noticed dark color just on the surface despite I used a small amount of lemon juice which was not in the original recipe. All avocado containing dishes discolor after exposure to oxygen. At least this dish did not turn into the non-appetizing brown color that the exposed surface of avocado often will take.

This was the sort of two course light lunch and I served avocado tofu as a first dish which was followed by lobster bisque with crab meat. This time, I thawed a tube of real wasabi. Compared to common imitation wasabi (made from horseradish), the real wasabi made a big difference, I garnished it with tobiko, thinly sliced scallion.

I also added a small leaf of perilla. For sauce, I used concentrated noodle sauce straight. This tasted better with very good bonito dashi flavor.

Ingredients:

One avocado, stone and skin removed, cut into small cubes (Original avocado weighed 225grams)(#1).

Half silken tofu* (250g) (#2)

Cream 1tbs

Lemon juice 1tsp

Powdered gelatin (I envelope, about 6 grams) and cold 3 tbs water.

*This is US made by "Nasoya". It is silken tofu and is quite good but mostly being sold for making "smoothies" (#2).

Directions:

In the  plastic container for my emersion blender, I added avocado, cream, and lemon juice (thinking this may prevent discoloration),  I added the tofu and blended using my emersion blender (#3). I bloomed the gelatin in cold water in a small pyrex ramekin. I microwave it for 30 seconds until dissolved and mixed into the avocado-tofu  mixture. I lined a small disposable loaf pan with a plastic wrap and poured in the mixture and let it set for several hours. 

This is a very luxurious dish. It has an amazingly smooth texture and nice avocado flavor that goes well with wasabi and soy sauce based sauce.