Hanami 2017 花見 2017

This year the cherry blossoms were an on-again, off-again, on-again event. We had unseasonably warm weather in February and the trees started to bloom early.  The smallest of our three cherry trees was in full bloom in early March. We celebrated the little tree's valiant effort with a pre-hanami or cherry blossom gazing. The warm weather continued and a few days later, it was clear the largest trees started blooming to about 20%. Then, (and you knew this was coming) there was a cold snap complete with a late season snow storm and these flowers were zapped. We were concerned that even the buds might have been destroyed and hanami would be a non-event this year. Not only the trees in our backyard were at risk but there was some concern that for the first time in 40 years even the trees at the Tidal Basin would not bloom. The cold weather held for a while and the cherry blossoms were put into a type of suspended animation until the cold spell broke the last week of March. We were out of town that week but when we arrived home we were pleasantly surprised to fine our backyard awash in cherry blossoms. Unfortunately, since we were out of town we missed the peak and the largest and second largest trees were slightly past full bloom. Since we arrived home in the late afternoon and the sun was still warm, we sat outside on our deck admiring the display and the fact that despite the vagaries of the weather there were  cherry blossoms this year.

Although some browned remnants of zapped flowers were visible, it was still spectacular.

the ski was blue and there was no wind.

Since we did not have a chance to go grocery shopping, I tapped into our frozen cache of tuna. I made marinated tuna sashimi or "Zuke" of tuna マグロのずけ. This time, I managed to marinate the tuna long enough to attain a dark red color and the "nettori" ねっとりor "soft" texture. Since I did not have any fresh greens, I served this as is. Initially, I thought this would go well with red wine like beef tartar but it did not so we switched to cold sake.

I also found leftover oden おでん in the fridge, which I had made before we went out of town. I reheated it and served it. The shiitake mushrooms were dried ones that I re-hydrated for a few days in the refrigerator before putting them in the oden. They were packed with umami.

Finally we had leftover tonkatsu of pork filet ヒレカツ. I just warmed it up in the toaster oven; Not as good as if it had been reheated in hot oil but certainly we could enjoy it.

The weather after this mini-hanami was really rainy and we had to wait until the following weekend for Hanami. By then, the cherry blossom was way past their peak but it was still beautiful.

Cod roe and homemade spaghetti pasta 自家製スパゲティでたらこスパゲッティ

This is a variation of cod roe spaghetti. We usually make this dish with thin Udon noodles うどん. After my wife got me a pasta machine, I have been making pasta. Since I made spaghetti and happened to have some tarako たらこcod roe, I tried this dish using the homemade "spaghetti".

Makings of spaghetti (for 2 servings):

Ingredients:
200 gram flour (I used Hodgson mill pasts flour which is a mixture of semolina and durum wheat flours).
80 gram mixture of one egg, olive oil, salt and water, well mixed. (I weighed these ingredients).

Directions:
1. I put the flour into the chamber of the machine (left upper) and turned it on.
2. I then slowly poured in the liquid.
3. It turns several minutes. It never come to one mass of dough but remains rather dry.
4. It automatically stops and reverses the direction which will feed the dough to the extruder and the pasta starts coming out (right upper).
5. The lower two pictures show the final product. It is rather dry and does not stick to each other.

For tarako sauce.

Ingredients:
One small onion, halved and sliced, caramelized in olive oil
Two sacs of "Tarako" cod roe
Sake
Olive oil, 1 tbs
Lemon juice
Perilla leaves, thinly julienned (I did not have perilla so I used baby arugula)  Nori , thinly julienned

Directions:
1. Cut one side of the roe sacs. Using the back of the knife, scrape off the roe leaving the sac.
2. Place the roe in a small bowl and add sake (small amount, probably 1-2 tsp) and mix.
3. Cook the spaghetti (I may have over cooked this).
4. Add the olive oil in a frying pan on medium flame.
5. When heated, add the cooked spaghetti, caramelized onion and mix. When the spaghetti is coated with oil and warm, add the cod mixture and quickly mix for 1-2 minutes until the roe becomes opaque (i.e. cooked).
6. Cut the heat and add the lemon juice (1 tbs).
7. Serve on the plate garnished with think strips of perilla leaves and nori.

This was a bit of disappointment. Since the fettuccini I made was  very good with nice texture but somehow became a bit mushy, I was expecting better. We decided using thin Udon noodle is much better.

Sake lee and miso marinated grilled salmon 鮭のハラスの粕味噌焼

This is a variation of sake lee marinated grilled fish. The usual marinade for this kind of dish is made of mostly sake lee with  a small  amount of miso. This past new year, however, I made two kinds of herring roe; one of which was marinated in the mixture of sake lee and miso. Although this marinade is a mixture of miso, sake lee and sake, it differs from the one described above in that it has much more miso. After I removed the herring roe from this marinade, I used it for fish and vegetables. I realized I have not posted it, so I used it again for my usual filet of salmon, belly portion (or "harasu" ハラス) . I served the marinated salmon belly with my cucumber onion salad as a first small dish for the evening.

1. I scaled the skin (I always have to do this since it is usually not properly scaled at the store. We suspect this is because not many people enjoy the skin as we do so the fish mongers don't "waste their time" carefully scaling it since the skin will generally be discarded). I then separated the belly portion.
2. In a small ziploc bag, I put a small amount of the sake lee miso marinade and pressed to spread making a thin layer. I then put in the salmon, and added more marinade on the side which did not already have the marinade. I pressed and spread the marinade to cover the fish.
3. After sealing the bag, I kept it in the refrigerator for a few days to a max of 1 week.
4. Just before grilling, I took the fish out and washed it in cold running water to remove the marinade and patted it dry using sheets of paper towel.
5. I grilled this in the toaster oven but I had be very careful not to burn the skin too much. I also moved the toaster oven under the hood of the stove since it creates some smoke. I started from the meat side and them cooked the skin side so that when finished, the skin was crispy.

Although we like salmon belly just salted and grilled, the marination adds subtle flavors and a different texture which is very nice for a change.

Nagaimo and salmon sausage Isobe fry 長芋とサーモンソーセージの磯辺揚げ

This was inspired by the vegan cooking by a Buddhist monk in Kyoto. He briefly cooked the nagaimo 長芋 rounds in broth, soy sauce and mirin to season it before making a type of tempura called "Isobe-age" 磯辺揚げ with the batter containing dried "aonori" 青海苔. I also made salmon sausages we got from my mother for new year into a similar tempura. I served it as a drinking snack with green tea salt, wedges of lemon and skinned Campari tomato.

I cooked the nagaimo a bit too much but I just used the leftover nagaimo dish and converted to the current dish.

Ingredients (for two small servings):
Nagaimo, peeled and cut into half inch thick rounds (four)
Dashi broth, soy sauce, mirin and sake
Salmon sausages, sliced diagonally in half inch thick (four)

For the tempura batter
Cake flour and potato starch
Cold water
Dried "Aonori"

Directions:
1. Cook the nagaimo in seasoned broth (Japanese broth seasoned with soy sauce, mirin and sake) for few minutes and let it cool in the broth (see below, this one is cooked longer than called for in this dish).

2. Make the tempura batter by mixing the flours and "aonori" with cold water until desired consistency (I made this rather runny). Coat the nagaimo and sausages.
3. Heat vegetable oil (I used peanut oil) to 350F and deep fry for few minutes.
4. Drain and serve immediately.

Since this was converted from "simmered Nagaimo" dish, the nagaimo was cooked more than needed before it was deep fried. Still, it had nice crunchy texture. It has nice crust with aonori flavor. The salmon sausages also tasted much better than when we tasted as is. This was  unusual but quite good tempura items.

Braised canned Mackerel in brine with Daikon 大根と鯖の水煮

We really like mackerel simmered in miso sauce. I usually make it from fresh mackerel but it is a bit of work. The other  day when we were at our Japanese grocery store, I bought canned mackerel in miso sauce or "saba-no-misoni" サバの味噌煮 and mackerel in brine or "saba-no-mizuni" さばの水煮. We had the canned mackerel in miso sauce which was pretty good but as per my wife, she thought mine was much better. In any case, I decide to use up the remaining canned mackerel. I came up with this dish made with diakon and canned mackerel which is inspired by a recipe I saw on line. I also served seasoned kelp or "konbu-no-tsukudani" 昆布の佃煮 since I made it as the by-product kelp after I made Japanese dashi broth from kelp and bonito flakes.

I garnished it with green part of scallion finely chopped.

Here is another serving.

This kelp dish was not as strongly seasoned since we usually eat as a drinking snack rather than with rice.

This is canned mackerel in brine. I just noticed "Taste of Japanese Mom's cooking" on the can.

This is how it looked. The fish was cooked in brine with bone-in but bone is soft (probably pressure cooked). I tasted it and it was rather salty so I adjusted my seasoning accordingly.

Ingredients:
Diakon, 1/4, peeled and cut daikon in quarters lengthwise and sliced it1/4 inch thick. This is called "icho-ni-kiru" イチョウに切る since the shape is similar to the "icho" or ginko leaves.
One can of mackerel in brine.
Oil 2 tsp (I used light olive oil)
Soy sauce
Mirin
Scallion 2, finely chopped

Directions:
1. I added the oil and daikon pieces to the pan and sautéed for several minutes.
2. I added the mackerel and the brine to the pan.
3. Using a bamboo spatula, I broke the mackerel in small pieces and cooked on medium heat for 5-10 minutes.
4. I tasted it and added 2 tsp of light colored soy sauce and 1 tbs of mirin (the seasoning needs to be adjusted depending on how salty the brine is).
5. I kept cooking until the daikon was soft and the liquid reduced in half.

This was much better than I expected. The combination of daikon and fish was excellent. This is a perfect snack with sake. Between this dish and the seasoned kelp, the sake went down well.

Hot cross buns 2017 ホットクロスバンズ

As Easter is approaching, my wife decided to bake another hot cross buns (shown here without the cross). This recipe is from King Arthur's and is the best hot cross buns she ever made!

Ingredients:
1/4 cup rum
1/2 cup mixed dried fruit
1/2 cup raisins or dried currants
1 1/4 cups milk, room temperature
3 large eggs, 1 separated (use the extra yolk in the dough)
6 tablespoons butter, room temperature
2 teaspoons instant yeast
1/4 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves or allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 3/4 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
4 1/2 cups All-Purpose Flour (with more as needed to form dough)

Topping
1 large egg white, reserved from above
1 tablespoon milk

Direction:
1) Lightly grease a 10" square pan or 9" x 13" pan.
2) Mix together all of the dough ingredients except the fruit, and knead, using an electric mixer, till the dough is soft and elastic. The last few minutes of kneading mix in the fruit.
4) Let the dough rise for 1 hour, covered. It should become puffy, though may not double in bulk (#1 below).
5) Divide the dough into pieces, about 2 1/4 ounces each. Round them into balls. Arrange them in the prepared pan (#2 , each bun weighed for uniform size).

6) Cover the pan, and let the buns rise for 1 hour, or until they've puffed up and are touching one another #3). While the dough is rising, preheat the oven to 375°F.
7) Whisk together the reserved egg white and milk, and brush it over the buns.
8) Bake the buns for 20 minutes, until they're golden brown #4). Remove from the oven, and transfer to a rack to cool (#5 and #6).

This is really good. We tasted one while they were still warm.  They had a nice texture and top crust with rum flavor. We felt we do not need the icing.

Salmon sausages from Hokkaido サーモンソーセージ

For the New Year, my mother sent us her usual "care package". For reasons, particularly unknown to us, the package took well over a month to arrive.  An investigation into the tracking indicated that it arrived in the U.S. where it just disappeared (so much for the usefulness of tracking). We had actually decided that the package got "lost" in transit never to be seen again--someone had an interesting free New Year's feast? Imagine our surprise when it showed up on our door step several weeks later (no explanation from USPS). In any case, all of the food included in the package was either smoked, dried or processed seafood of Hokkaido and was, therefore, not the worst for the delay.  These items are from Satou Suisan 佐藤水産 in Sapporo 札幌市 which specializes in Hokkaido's famous seafood especially salmon. We have been enjoying salmon "toba" 鮭のトバ and salmon "chips" サーモンチップス for some time especially with bourbon and water. We almost finished everything in the package. Before its all gone, however, I decided to post a few of the items left. This was a starting snack one evening. Dried salmon chips (right upper), soft "atarime" あたりめ which is a type of dried and pressed squid (same as "surume" するめ but "suru" in Japanese means "to lose, especially in gambling, so by replacing "suru" with "atari" which means to "hit a jack pot" for a good luck, right lower) and two kinds of salmon sausages サーモンソーセージ (left upper and lower).

I also added mayo with Japanese 1 flavor hot pepper flakes 一味唐辛子 and soy sauce with skinned Campari tomato and blanched broccoli.

The below are pictures of the packages of the salmon sausage. As we posted before, I never liked fish sausages as a kid and as an adult I still do not like it. The left below is the salmon sausages; one is black since it contains squid ink and black pepper. The right below are "Salmon chips" and dried squid "atarime". This particular "atarime" was not just shredded dried squid but also pressed thin which made it not too chewy and easier to eat.

We liked the salmon chips and salmon toba. "atarime" was also nice especially heated up briefly in the toaster oven. The salmon sausages were supposedly made of 100% salmon meat but for us, it tasted about the same as any fish sausage. We did not experience anything that tasted like salmon and we could not distinguish any difference between the regular and black salmon sausage. In short, both were tasteless but had a nice texture. Although my mother was worried that the package was lost and when we told her it arrived, she was worried everything had been spoiled but nothing was bad and we stretched out our enjoyment of these items for a few months.