Squid fritters イカのすり身揚げ

This recipe is from "The real Japanese Izakaya Cookbook". This dish is featured on the cover. I ended up, by necessity, having to modify the recipe. Despite the modification, this dish turned out to be very good. I served it, as per my wife's suggestion, with a wedge of lemon rather than "Japanese sauce" as the original recipe suggested. I served it with my usual sugar snaps and Campari tomato.

Since the squid legs were only coarsely chopped, you can see them in the cut surface which gave texture to this dish.

Actually, I made a soup using the squid mixture as per the original recipe. As I dropped the mixture into the broth, I realized the squid balls were not sticking together as well as I expected. For the soup, this was not much of a problem but I did not want the squid balls to fall apart in the hot oil. So, I had to modify the recipe by adding more "binders"(egg, more flour and panko bread crumbs).

This clear soup was made of dashi from my usual dashi pack, sake, mirin and light colored soy sauce. I made "quenelles" using two teaspoons and dropped them into the simmering soup. They did not maintain a quenelle shape but mostly stayed together. I added silken tofu and chopped scallion to the soup. Just before serving, I added frozen "yuzu" skin to the soup bowls. Despite the fact the squid mixture became a rather amorphous blob this was a pretty good soup.

The squid balls in the soup were based on the original recipe. When I saw how they cooked in the soup I realized I had to alter the recipe to make sure they did not dissolve when I put them in the hot oil. The instructions below are for the squid fritters and include my modifications.

Ingredients (This is my modification):
1lb cleaned squid, tentacles and body, half and half (the body hand chopped into small pieces , #1 and the tentacles cut into small chunks, #2).
2-3 tbs Panko Japanese bread crumbs
1 egg
2 tbs flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper

For frying
Flour, egg+water, panko
Peanut oil for deep frying

Directions:
Mix all ingredients well and make small oval patties. Usual frying process; dredge in flour, dip in egg water, and coat with panko crumbs (#3)
Deep fry for 4-5 minutes turning occasionally (maybe because of the egg, the fritters puffed up into a ball (#4)

I think the reason I had to add more binders (flour, bread crumb and egg) is because the body of the squid was not chopped finely enough (to paste). Next time I will use a small food processor and make it more the consistency of mousse.  It is not easy to hand chop squid.

In any case, the end result was pretty good. We think just lemon is better than Japanese Worcestershire sauce for these rather delicate tasting squid fritters. During the week we heated up the remaining fritters in the toaster oven for a week night appetizer and that worked out very well.

My wife found the daffodils in the front yard with large buds on them. She brought two inside and put them in a Japanese style flower vase. A few days later it bloomed beautifully. Spring is coming!

Cheesy spinach squares

My wife is into making small cheesy appetizers--particularly green cheesy appetizers. This recipe fulfilled both conditions and she had to make it.

The cheese squares were fairly easy to make but despite all the cheese and other ingredients that went into it, we felt, in general, it was pretty bland. The spinach gave it a green color but didn't add much flavor. To jazz it up a bit we tried it with my tomato sauce which was made from skinned Campari tomatoes. The addition of the tomato sauce added more flavor and really helped.

My wife was on the look-out for other ways she could improve the cheese squares and one evening when she was frying up some scrapple for an appetizer she decide she would fry up the cheese squares the same way since she had peanut oil in the pan and it was hot  .

She dredged the squares in flour and fried them on all sides until they had a nice brown crust as shown in the picture below. This was an improvement. The crust had a nice crunchy toasted flavor and the inside was soft with a slight cheesy flavor.  It was okay but not outstanding.

Ingredients (#1 in the composite picture):
1 cup flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup milk
1 and 1/2 cups grated cheddar cheese
2 eggs, lightly beaten
4 tbs butter, melted
1 cup chopped fresh spinach (original recipe calls or 1package or 9oz frozen chopped spinach).

Directions:
Mix all the ingredients (#1 in composite picture) together (#2 in composite picture) . Place the mixture in a greased 9 inch square pan lined with parchment paper and greased again. (This makes it easier to get out after it is done.) (#3 in composite picture)  Bake in a 350 degree oven for 30 to 35 minutes. Loosen the edges from the sides of the pan as soon as it comes out of the oven (#4 in composite picture) . Let it cool slightly before cutting.

This wasn't bad and certainly went together quickly. It was quite edible but not exciting. If we make it again we will have to make some significant alterations.

Salmon sashimi three ways 鮭の刺身３種

Whenever we get frozen sashimi salmon from Catalina offshore products, I have to come up with several ways to serve it since having it as only straight salmon sashimi gets to be a bit too much of a good thing.  The first evening after the salmon was thawed, I served only the belly portion as sashimi for a small starting dish. The next evening, I prepared the plate shown below with three different salmon preparations, octopus leg and several vegetables.

The picture below shows straight salmon sashimi with my usual sugar snap in salted broth スナップ豌豆の塩びたし shown on the right.

The below is a new and very simple dish which I read about somewhere online. I just marinated the salmon sashimi in "shio ko-ji" 塩麹 for a few hours in the refrigerator. I served it topped with "ikura" salmon roe and garnished with chopped chives.  The shio ko-ji made the salmon sashimi softer but added a bit slippery surface texture. This is certainly different and not bad but not our favorite way of serving salmon sashimi.

The picture below shows salmon cured overnight in Russian marinade 鮭のロシア漬け. Since the salmon is marinated only overnight, just the surface of the salmon pieces are chemically cooked but the center is still raw. This partial curing is possible because this is sashimi grade salmon. If I made this dish from regular salmon filet, I would make sure the center was opaque indicating that it was completely chemically cooked. I garnished this with a chiffonade of perilla leaves. We liked this preparation very much. To the left of the salmon is a salad of thinly sliced cucumber in sushi vinegar 胡瓜の酢の物 and sliced Campari tomato. On the right side is blanched broccolini dressed with mustard soy sauce.

Since we had boiled octopus leg from the Japanese grocery store, I served it with sumiso dressing as usual.

We really enjoyed this medley of salmon dishes but luckily there was still a small piece of salmon left to look forward to the next evening.

Straw grilled bonito at Tako Grill 藁焼きカツオ

On  a recent visit to Tako Grill, the owner Mr. Terry Segawa 瀬川哲紀さん told us that he was going to get some fresh bonito 鰹 from Japan and cook it in the traditional Japanese way of searing and smoking it over a straw fueled fire 藁焼き. Since Mr. Segawa is originally from Kochi 高知 in Shikoku 四国 which is famous for this dish, this was clearly something we couldn't miss and we are glad we didn't.  Firstly, the cooking of the bonito as shown in the pictures below was quite a breath-taking display.

Mr. Segawa placed a small shiny brand-new metal garbage can and filled straw under the restaurant's industrial strength exhaust hood. He told me that he got the straw from a near-by farm. When he lit the straw, the flame flared up bright and strong. As you can see, it made a pretty impressive fire. (From deep inside the restaurant I heard a child's voice pipe up "Daddy, is that a real fire?") I suspect other customers were also taken by the impressive display.

Mr. Segawa skillfully seared the outside of the bonito leaving the inside still raw, i.e. Katsuo tataki カツオのたたき. Not only was the outside seared but it was also washed in the fragrant straw smoke. The result was the dish shown below. It was served with grated ginger, thinly sliced garlic and red onion. Needless to say, the bonito was melt-in-your-mouth tender with a contrasting seared bark texture on the surface and a wonderful straw-grilled flavor. Compared to our usual pre-packaged frozen bonito tataki, this is in a totally different class. This was a wonderful experience without having to go to Kochi ourselves. Thanks, Segawa-san.

I also took some video.

Hijiki stir fry and other otoshi ひじきの炒め物と他２品

This is a starter line-up for one evening. Nothing is particularly new. From left to right are "aji-tsuke-tamago" 味付け卵 marinated soft boiled egg, hijiki seaweed and fried tofu stir fly ひじきと油揚の炒め物, and salt-broth soaked sugar snap スナップ豌豆の塩びたし.

Over the years I changed the way I make aji-tsuke tamago a bit (made it simpler and easier). As usual, I use pasteurized eggs. For some time, I have been using "boil-steam" cooking method for boiled eggs which works much better than just submerging eggs in water and boiling. I use just enough water to come half way up the sides of the eggs. (The eggs are cooked by steam). I pierce the eggs first and place them in the water that is boiling rapidly on medium high flame. I put on the lid and cook for 6 minutes 30 seconds for soft boiled eggs with runny yolk (I usually ask Siri to time the 6 1/2 minutes). I cool the eggs using cold running water and then further cool them down using ice water. This appears to make peeling the egg easier (I think). I then put the peeled eggs in a small Ziloc bag and just pour in a small amount of concentrated "men-tsuyu" めんつゆ noodle sauce from the bottle. I remove the air as much as possible and seal. I let it marinade for a few days in the fridge changing the position whenever I open the fridge door. After a few days, the runny yolk jells into an almost custard consistency. To serve I cut one in half and sprinkle with salt. This is usually a topping for ramen noodles but it is also great as an appetizer.

The dish shown below is very similar to what I posted before. I made this because I hydrated too much hijiki when I made the takoyaki variation. This is made of just hijiki, julienned carrot and thinly cut "abra-age" deep fried tofu pouch, stir fried with sesame oil, mirin and soy sauce. This can be a good condiment for rice or as we did here, a great snack.

The dish below has become our favorite way to have sugar snaps. Just blanched sugar snaps are nice but this extra step of trimming both ends of the pods and soaking in salt seasoned Japanese "dashi" broth makes it much better. The only caution is when you bite into them the salt broth that migrated into the sugar snap while it was soaking may squirt out.

So these three items with cold sake nicely started the evening. This home Izakaya is not bad if I say so myself.

Takoyaki variation with tofu and nagaimo 長芋豆腐たこ焼き

This is a takoyaki たこ焼き ("tako grill") variation made without "tako" (octopus). This recipe is from "The real Japanese Izakaya Cookbook". We made takoyaki (octopus inclusive) using an electric ebelskiver maker before. An ebelskiver maker is the closest we could come to a traditional takoyaki grill.  This recipe deviates significantly from the traditional approach because it uses grated nagaimo 長芋 and tofu 豆腐 instead of flour. Instead of tako is uses hijiki ひじき sea weed and edamame 枝豆 . Continuing on the innovative theme, instead of the usual "Takoyaki sauce", this recipe used "Gin-an" 銀餡 which is a milder and "more sophisticated" sauce.

The surface was nicely brown and crunchy.

The inside was soft and hot showing hijiki (black stringy below) and edamame (green).

Ingredients: (I tried to halve the amount of the original recipe. I ended up making some changes inadvertently, since I just did not want to use "half egg" and I did not want to leave a small portion of nagaimo).

The original recipe is as follows;

1 firm silken tofu 12oz (350g)
Handful dried Hijiki seaweed
8 oz (225g) unshelled edamame pods (then, cooked and shelled)
1 egg
4oz (125g) yamaimo
1/2 tbs sugar
1/2 tsp salt

The amount below are what I think I used. It made 6 balls using the Ebelskiver cooker (the balls were larger than regular takoyaki) as below.

1 small package of silken tofu, about 125gram, wrapped in paper towel with a weight (I used wooden cutting board) to drain for 1 hour.
Nagaimo, skin removed and grated, about 120g (I used up what I had left)
1 egg
Hijiki seaweed, hydrated, arbitrary amount
Edamame, frozen, cooked and shelled, arbitrary amount
Pinch of salt and sugar
"Katakuri-ko" potato Starch (because, proportionally I used more nagaimo and egg than the original recipe which made the batter runnier, I added potato starch to adjust the consistency of the batter).

For the dipping sauce; (this is the original, again, I halved the recipe when I made it)
2 tbs potato starch
2 cup (500ml) dashi
1 tbs soy sauce
1/2 sugar
1/2 tbs mirin
1/4 tsp salt

Directions:
Using a small food processor, I mixed the tofu, grated nagaimo, egg, salt and sugar until the batter was smooth. I then added the potato starch in small increments to adjust the consistency (it was the consistency of a bit runny pancake batter).
I added the hijiki, edamame and mixed (#1)
I preheated my electric ebelskiver to medium high (#2)
I poured the batter filling 6 wells (#3)
After the bottom got set and browned (it took a few minutes, I was too inpatient and started flipping too early)
After several flipping, the surface started getting evenly brown (#4)
I kept flipping until the surface is all cooked and browned about 5-6 minutes (#5 and 6).

This version of takoyaki was good and the dipping sauce went well with it but this is not really takoyaki (I am sure people from Osaka would agree). It is a dish in-and-of its own just resembling the shape of takoyaki. Making  this requires some steps and effort and I would rather make  regular takoyaki which is much easier to make.

Olive brine marinated pork tenderloin with cuscus オリーブブライン漬け豚ヒレ

This is continuation of my search for another way to cook pork tenderloins. A few days ago I used the trimmings from two pork tenderloins, I prepared to make "Pork, potato, and green bean stir fry". The next day, I made "Seared Pork tenderloin with smoked paprika and oregano 焼き豚フィレ肉、薫製パプリカ、オレガノ味" from one of the tenderloins. That left one last tenderloin. I came across this recipe in "Food and Wine" magazine. It uses the brine from a jar of olives (I suppose it is made of water, vinegar and salt with added olive flavor from the marinated olives) as a marinade for pork tenderloin. We were inspired by this recipe so we made this dish and served it with couscous. The original recipe called for white beans as the side but we happened to have a box of couscous which recently passed its "best used by" date. (Actually that date was one year ago but in our household that is "recent"). The brining did make the pork more succulent but did not add much flavor despite the addition of ground sage and lemon zest to the brine.

We added all the juice, olives and roasted garlic from the roasted pork to the couscous which made it very flavorful and moist. (We tend to avoid dry flakey couscous which we found from experience can easily become uncomfortably air borne if you happen to inhale slightly at the wrong time while eating it). Although the color could have been a bit better, we will call this dish a sucess.

Since we do not believe in "searing" the surface of the meat before baking, I skipped the searing step.

Ingredients:
One trimmed and prepared pork tenderloin
Several green olives, pitted and smashed
Several cloves of garlic, skin on
1 tbs olive oil

For marinade:
1/4 cup of brine from a jar of olives (we had sweet red pepper stuffed green olives which I use when I have a martini).
1 tbs extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp ground sage
Lemon zest from one lemon using a micrograter.
1/2 tsp Kosher salt

Salt and pepper for seasning.

Directions:
Place the marinade and the tenderloin in a Ziploc bag. Removed the air, close the bag and marinate for 3 hours in the refrigerator.
Preheat oven (I used our toaster oven in convection mode) to 375F.
Remove the pork from the marinade, blot with a paper towel, coat with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Coat the garlic cloves with olive oil.
Place the pork, olives, and garlic on a baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes or until the temperature in the thickest part of the pork registers 145F.
Let it rest for 5-10 minutes on the cutting board.

Meanwhile, we prepared a box of couscous according to the directions (we used chicken broth and pats of butter). When done, we fluffed up the couscous using a fork, added the roasted garlic by squeezing out the soft center of the clove leaving the skin behind. Then we added the olives and whatever juice from the meat that accumulated while it was resting.

Since we are not really into brining meats, this is a quick and easy way to do it. As far as we could tell the main impact of the brining was on the texture of the meat rather than its flavor. The meat was moist and nice. This is a new for us but we are not sure we will do this again.