Anchovy balls in soup イワシのつみれ汁

Anchovies or "Iwashi" イワシ are generally considered "low-class" fish. In the West, it is almost exclusively used to make cans of salted and oil packed filets or paste in a tube. It is often used in Italian food such as pizza, or in a sauce or garnish but many people do not like it. In Japan, it is also considered a "low-class" fish but it is much better appreciated and eaten in many different ways. One of the problems with these blue skin fish is that they spoil very quickly. When I was in Japan, small blue skinned fish like pacific saury or "sanma" 秋刀魚 or anchovies or "iwashi" イワシ was never eaten as sashimi.  Recent improvement in quick delivery logistics, however, made it possible to consume these blue skin fish as sashimi. We occasionally see "fresh" (meaning not in a can) whole anchovies in the near-by Whole  foods market. Unfortunately, for some reason, they look all beaten up; like they just came out of a bar brawl. For this reason I hesitate to buy them. While I was checking our freezer, I came across frozen filets of fresh anchovies that I bought in our Japanese grocery store.  I completely forgot I had them and decide to make two dishes from them.

This is the first dish. It is a fish meat ball called "iwashi-no-tsumire*" イワシのつみれ. I added the fish meat balls to seasoned broth with tofu, shiitake mushrooms, green beans, and garnished with the white part of scallion which makes this dish "Iwashi-no-tusmire-jiru" イワシのつみれ汁. Since this was in the evening and my wife does not like to eat a lot of soup in the evening, I added only a small amount of the broth.

Here is the close up. The tsumire  turned out to be very soft and friable.  The tofu is silken tofu from "Otokomae".

*Digression  Alert: I am sure nobody cares about the difference between "tsukune" つくね and "tsumire" つみれ but to make this blog educational, I will try to explain the subtle difference between these two Japanese culinary parlances. Both are balls made of minced fish or animal meat and cooked, either boiled or grilled. "Tsukune" is most often used to describe chicken meat balls and "tsumire" for fish meat balls but that is not the true difference between these two words. "Tsukune-ru" 捏ねる is a verb which means to "mix" or "knead" and if you are forming balls by rolling, it is called "tsukune". "Tsumu" 摘む is a verb which means to "pick" or "pluck" and 'Tumi-ireru" 摘入れる is a combined verb (tsumu+ ireru, "ireru" meaning "to place"). So tsumuireru means  "to pluck something (between your fingers) and put it (into cooking liquid). So, for authentic "tsumire", you pick up a small portion of chopped meat with your fingers and then place it in cooking liquid. In my case, I just used two small spoons to form balls, so this is "quenelle" rather than "tsumire". This is way more than anybody cares to know, but even I am amazed at my ability to pontificate on such meaningless topics.

Ingredients:
Frozen anchovy filets, 3, thawed (see below, I used half for this dish)
Miso, 1 tsp
Sake, 4 tbs+1tsp
Ginger, grated, 1/2 tsp
Potato starch, 1/2 tsp
Alternatively, you could use salt (1/2 tsp) and egg white (one egg) which make more "pure" iwashi flavored tsumire. In my case, I was more afraid of a strong"fishy" smell and flavor and used miso and ginger.

For the seasoned broth:
Japanese kelp and bonito broth (I made it  from a dashi pack), 200ml
Mirin and light colored soy sauce to taste (about 1 tbs each)

Directions:
Marinate the filets in sake for 30 minutes to overnight in the refrigerator (optional, especially if using fresh anchovies).
Using a chef's knife, mince it (the finer you mince the fish the firmer the resulting tsumire). You could remove the skin to make it less strong but I included it).
I mixed the miso with sake and worked it into the minced fish meat.
I then added the potato starch (you can add more to make the final products firmer).

Using two spoons, I made a small "quenelle" and dropped into gently simmering seasoned broth and cooked it for 5 minutes.
I kept this in the refrigerator after it cooled to the room temperature and the next day, heated it up with other items seen in the first picture or served it immediately.

This was a very slightly fishy in smell but not in taste. It had a very soft and delicate texture. The texture of the fish went very well with the texture of the soft tofu. Probably I could have minced the fish more finely and/or added more starch. In any case, it was a nice and delicate dish and we enjoyed it with cold sake on a recent holiday.

Natto and mackerel donburi 鯖味噌納豆丼

When I made natto with canned mackerel in miso sauce, the recipe suggested that this dish would be good as a drinking snack or on rice. So, I used the leftovers to make this donburi for lunch. I used frozen cooked rice which we always have in our freezer. (When we cook rice, we usually have leftovers so we freeze individual sized portions in small Ziploc bags with the date written on the outside. Then when we need rice we thaw it for 30 seconds in the microwave which makes rice to be separated but still semi-frozen. At this point, I put the rice in the bowl).

I also added precooked green beans (I usually  boil a package of green beans and keep it in the refrigerator). I microwaved it with a lid on (this donbri bowl has a lid) until the rice was warm (it comes out with a consistency and taste close to freshly made).

I also added a sunny -side-up fried egg (the egg yolk still runny).

This was quite good. I should have made more sauce.  I am sure freshly cooked rice would have been better but even with frozen rice, this was quite enjoyable.

Blue fish simmered in misoブルーフィシュの味噌煮

The other day, we were in the near-by Wholefoods store. We always look to see what kind of whole fresh fish is available. My wife wanted mackerel since she really like mackerel in miso sauce (サバの味噌煮) but they did not have it. Instead, we saw two relatively small blue fish which were the last they had. I am not sure if there is any Japanese name or similar fish in Japan. The meat is soft and has a slightly blueish tinge. It also has a rather strong taste and is considered a fairly "low-class" fish and is often used as bait for larger fish by game fishermen. We have smoked this fish before which made it rather palatable. We thought these characteristics were somewhat similar to mackerel and decided it may be good to cook it in miso sauce.

I garnished it with chopped chives and thin julienne of ginger.

It looks very similar to mackerel as we hoped it would.

It is essentially cooked the same as mackerel.

Ingredients:
Bluefish, two, about 10 inches, gutted and head off (#1)
300 ml water
100 ml sake
5tbs miso
3tbs sugar
4 slices of ginger

Directions:
Scale and cut two fillets removing the center layer of bone (#3). this is called "Sanmai-ni-orosu" 三枚におろす.
Remove the belly portion and any bones especially under the dorsal fin  (#3).
Cut the filet into 3 pieces and score the skin to prevent the skin from breaking while cooking (#4).
Put the sake, water, and ginger in the pan and add the fish with the skin side up when the liquid starts simmering(#5).
Cook for few minutes and mix the miso, sugar and loosen it by adding the simmering liquid and then add the miso mixture (#6).
Covered it with a silicon "otoshibuta" and cook 30-40 minutes.
Remove the lid and reduce the sauce for 5-10 minutes until the miso sauce become think and clingy.

So, we found out, bluefish can be substituted for mackerel for this dish. It tasted almost identical and if you were not told, you could not tell the difference.

Tater tots, sort of テイタートッツ

We don't eat steak very often but when we do, my wife always likes to have potatoes as the side. (Apparently, she is an all American meat-and-potato gal when it comes to steak). She usually makes oven fried (baked) potatoes. She tried several iterations using duck fat or bacon drippings in the past. Since I got two small filet mignon for dinner, she wanted potatoes but wanted to make something different. She came up with this variation of the ultimate American potato; "Tater tots". They are essentially grated potato formed into short cylinders and deep fried. Generally this dish starts life frozen in a package on the freezer isle of the grocery store (Ore-Ida invented this in 1953). Then it is baked in the oven. (When my wife was a very young child, she thought the freezer was the source of all food including a continuous supply of pre-made tater tots).  Being a bit older now, there was no way my wife was going to send me to the grocery store to get frozen tater tots. They were going to be home-made...was that even possible? Turns out tater tots are very popular and there are many recipes to make them at home from scratch. My wife consulted several of these recipes and came up with this variation. It is more like small hash-browns than tater tots.

Instead of deep frying, this was baked.

Ingredients:
White potatoes, 5, peeled
Bacon, 2 strips, cooked crisp and crumbled
1/2 tsp onion powder
1 Tbs. AP flour
1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese
1 1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp pepper
2 Tbs. olive oil
Italian parsley, finely chopped, 1 tbs

Directions:
Partially cook the potatoes in salted water (starting from cold water, add 5 minutes after the water comes to a boil). (Next time we may try just grating the potato raw).

Grate the partially cooked potatoes coarsely using a box grader. Then mix in the bacon, onion power, AP flour, cheddar cheese, salt, pepper, olive oil and parsley. (#1).

Instead of making the potato mixture into short cylindrical shapes which is traditional, my wife just made a loose ball using a medium size ice cream scoop on a greased non-stick baking sheet. She then lightly pressed them flat  (#2 and 3).
She baked them in a 450F for 20 minutes turning over once after 10 minutes (#4).

This was good with a crunchy outer shell and soft center. We did not taste much of the bacon, though. For the amount of work, we may be better off with our oven baked potato or I may even suggest we go for those Ore-Ida frozen original tater tots.

Chicken wings simmered with prunes 鳥手羽のプルーン煮

We like chicken wings. We have posted quite a number of different ways to cook and enjoy chicken wings. Our most common way is to dredge the wings with flour and curry powder then bake at a high temperature in the toaster oven .  I wanted to cook them a different way and decided to try this recipe which is chicken wings simmered with prunes. The original recipe calls for a pressure cooker. I did not use a pressure cooker. Instead I cooked them longer in a regular pot. I also omitted the sugar.

I served them with blanched broccoli.

Ingredients:
Chicken wings, 8, flats and drumetts separated
Prunes, 8
Soy sauce 2 tbs
Mirin 1 tbs
Sake 1 tbs
Japanese dried red pepper flakes (optional)

Directions:
Just put everything in the pot in low flame. Although the original recipe called for water to cover, I did not add any water. I covered it with a silicon "otoshi-buta" 落し蓋 and put on the lid. I cooked it for close to 1 hour. I turned the chicken pieces once.

The prunes almost melted and added flavor and sweetness to the sauce. Even omitting the sugar (I substituted with mirin), this was plenty sweet. The meat did not get as tender as I expected. Other simmered chicken wing dishes made the meat much more tender. This is not bad but we prefer other chicken wing dishes.

Carrot Cashew spread with miso 味噌味人参カシューナッツスプレッド

My wife found this unusual recipe in the WashingtonPost and made it (I helped). It is a spread made of carrots and cashew nuts with miso flavor. The miso flavor part sold this recipe to us, albeit the combination sounded very odd. We garnished with roasted sesame and spread it on flat bread.

This was a first snack with our usual red wine and we also had my salmon spread shown in the top dish.

Both were quite good and although the carrot cashew was a bit unusual it was very good.

Ingredients:
4 large carrots cut into pennies
1 1/4 cups roasted and salted cashews (original recipe calls for raw unsalted cashew but in general we like nuts that have been roasted)
2 cups 1/3-salt Swanson's chicken broth (original recipe calls for vegetable broth to keep it vegetarian).
3 tablespoons white miso
Roasted (although it was already roasted, we dry roasted on a frying pan) white sesame seeds, ground in a Japanese Suribachi until oil came out (1 tsp) (this is our addition) and save some for garnish.

Directions:
Peel and trim the carrots, then chop them into 1/2-inch pennies.
Place in a medium saucepan along with the broth. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat to medium and cook for about 10 minutes or until the carrots are very tender.
Remove from the heat. Reserve 1/4 cup of the cooking liquid and whisk the miso into it until dissolved.
Use a slotted spoon to transfer the cooked carrots and cashews, and the ground sesame seeds and the miso mixture to a blender; puree until fairly smooth.
Transfer to a serving bowl and garnish with the sesame seeds

We are not sure how much of the difference it would have made between using raw and boiled cashew and roasted cashew. Our addition of ground toasted sesame seeds added a nice fragrant sesame flavor. The combination of miso and sesame flavors are most noticeable. The carrot and cashew flavors are a bit muted, but the carrot did give a nice texture, slight sweetness and color to the spread. This was a very unusual spread and we liked it very much.

Rosemary Pine nut cookie ローズマリー松の実クッキー

Christopher Kimball, who is a founder of America's test kitchen, left there and started a new cooking site/publication called Milk Street. We started subscribing to his quarterly Milk street magazine. This cookie is from one of those issues. We always like savory and not sweet cookies like anchovy black pepper cookies and chili cheese shortbread, so this was a natural for us to try, so we made this one weekend (I did the grating and chopping and my wife did the rest).

It is topped with pine nuts and honey butter glaze.

Ingredients: Pictures #1 and #2 (by accident I included sesame seeds in the picture. They are for another dish).
1 1/2 cups (213 gm) AP flour
1/2 cup (85 gm) cornmeal
1/2 cup (99 gm) sugar
1 Tbs. finely chopped fresh rosemary
2 tsp grated orange zest or orange flavoring
16 Tbs (2 sticks) salted butter softened (14 tsp. for the dough, 2 tsp. for the honey topping)
1 cup pine nuts
3 Tbs. honey

Directions:
In an electric mixer with a paddle, mix the sugar, rosemary and orange zest until the moisture from the orange zest and rosemary makes the sugar form coarse clumps (#3, 2-3 minutes).
Add 14 tbs butter in small pats one-by-one until they are well incorporated making a wet paste (#4). Beat on high until fluffy. Add the flour gradually until a dough ball forms on the paddle (#5)
Break up the dough into small chunks and place them in an aluminum foil lined 13 x 9 inch baking pan  (excess edges of foil all around to facilitate the removal of the cookie) (#6)
Press the chunks (using fingers) into a flat sheet (#7)
Place the pine nuts in a single layer and press them hard into the dough (#8)
In a small bowel melt the remaining 2 Tbs. of butter. Add the honey and mis thoroughly. Brush the surface with the honey butter (#9)
Bake it at 325 F for 40-45 minutes (#10)
Let it cool for 15 minutes and lift out the sheet of cookies to the cutting board
Cut into small rectangles and let it completely cool on the cooling rack.

The aroma of the orange and rosemary while these were cooking was quite strong and very pleasant. The combination of orange, rosemary and pine nuts all works. It is sweet/savory with very complex flavors. The honey butter glaze is a nice finish. This cookie can be enjoyed while sipping wine.