Vermont "Aigamo" rice バーモント産合鴨米

Our friend who moved to Vermont some years ago, gave us a special organic Japanese short-grain rice which was raised using the "Aigamo" method. "Aigamo" 合鴨 is a type of domestic duck (cross between white domesticated duck and wild mallard). These ducks are released as hatchlings in the rice paddy to eat weeds, snails and churn the water to prevent other weeds from taking root thus organically tending the rice. These ducks are depicted on the package shown below. This rice came from Boundbrook farm and their site described in more detail how the "Aigamo" method works. I was familiar with this method of organic farming in Japan but never ate rice grown this way before.

According to the website, they sell both brown and white rice. We got brown rice.

Our rice induction cooker has a "Brown" rice setting since brown rice needs more water. I first washed the rice and then added it to the cooker with the appropriate water level. I added a pinch of salt, and soaked it for about 6 hours before cooking.

I let it steep for 30 minutes after it finished cooking. It had the nice smell of freshly cooked rice plus a nutty smell of brown rice.

We enjoyed the rice plain at first to enjoy its full flavor. It has a very nice nutty flavor. My wife really likes to add butter an soy sauce to hot rice. So this time even I succumbed to her method. We also had it with a seasoned nori sheets. Since this was the ending dish or "shime" for the meal, we did not have anything else with the rice.

Because of the "aigamo" organic method, the price of this rice is substantially higher than regular rice but if you consider "organic food" is important plus the wonderful nutty flavor, this is worth the expense.

Hot cross buns and cheese buns made with biga ホットクロスバンとチーズバン

As the Covid-19 pandemic started to unfold we decided to prepare by buying in basic food ingredients such as flour, sugar, rice and fresh "winter vegetables" such as potatoes, carrots, cabbage, and squash which would keep for some time. Our reasoning was that if food shortages developed  we could live on these basics by baking bread and cooking the stockpile of veggies. (Shortages did develop, for example, eggs were not available for a while and many of the shelves in the super market were bare. One week we bought the last two bags of rice at the Japanese grocery store). Feeling smugly well prepared, my wife was horrified to realize that we only had one 4 oz. jar of yeast much less than we thought. We still had baking powder and soda, so we could make quick breads but the lack of yeast put a serious wrinkle in our well laid plans. We were further horrified to discover that in addition the the shortages mentioned above, there was a major shortage of yeast. It was not available anywhere. Apparently, other folks had the same strategy we were employing. The yeast shortage was soon followed by shortages of flour and sugar. Luckily, we had bought in plenty of those items but we had to come up with something to deal with the yeast shortage--"enter biga, stage right". My wife remembered a Pantone recipe she made some time ago that used a sponge called biga and required much less yeast so she looked it up and began substituting it in the breads she made, with remarkable success.

The picture below shows two breads my wife made for Easter and served on her favorite Easter bunny plate. The one on the right is a hot cross bun that she made before the yeast shortage so it was not made using biga. It didn't have a frosting cross on top instead my wife cut the baked bun in half and put the cream cheese icing used for the cross inside. The bun on the left is a cheese bun made with biga.

Here are the cross sections. The cheese roll has, of course, cheese stuffing that was baked in the bun. The hot cross bun lost the cross but the icing was sandwiched in the muffin after the muffin was baked.

Although we posted the hot cross buns before, the cheese rolls are new. My wife started making "biga" (or "starter" or "sponge") to conserve the yeast we have. Although it takes overnight fermentation, it has the additional benefit of much better flavor. I asked my wife for the recipe.

Ingredients:
Biga: (Hers has more liquid than  traditional biga. So, this is a cross between biga and poolish)
1 3/4  cups flour
2 cups buttermilk
1/8 tsp yeast

Dough:
biga
3 tbs sugar
2 tsp salt
3 tbs butter
2 1/4 cups flour as needed (to make a total of 4 cups including flour in the biga)
1/8 additional yeast (optional) it will result in a quicker rise.

Cheese filling
4 oz. feta cheese crumbled
5 oz. ricotta cheese
2 oz. smoked gouda, grated
2 oz. monterey jack, grated
2 oz. double Gloucester, grated (other cheeses could be substituted such as smoked mozzarella)
1 egg
sprinkle of red pepper flakes (to taste)

Day 1: in the evening mix together the ingredients for the biga (#1) cover the bowel with plastic wrap and several towels and leave out overnight. Picture (#2) shows what it looks like next morning.

Day 2: Make the cheese filling by adding the cheese ingredients together and mixing until blended then set aside (#1). Make the dough using the biga and dough ingredients. Let rise in a covered bowel (#2). (The rise will be very slow. I made the dough at 8:00 AM and formed the rolls at 4:00 PM).  After the first rise punch the dough down. Cut into 2 1/4 oz. pieces. Using a small ice cream scoop put a scoop of cheese in the middle of the dough (#3) and using the dough cover the cheese (#4). Put the muffin into a heavily greased large pyrex baking dish and let rise again (#5). (This rise will go much faster). Bake at 400 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes until golden (#6). Remove immediately to let cool. As the picture shows some of the filling leaked out as the muffins cooked but plenty was still left inside.

These muffins were not as fluffy as the same recipe made with commercial yeast but the flavor was just incredible; very rich with depth. The texture is also a bit more chewy but still a wonderful mouth feel.   These buns were made with much less yeast. The original recipe made with commercial yeast would have used 4 1/2 tsp yeast while this recipe used a maximum of 1/4 tsp yeast. The thing we noticed was that as the dough was rising it gave off a pleasant strong yeasty smell that was wonderful and not something we noticed when we made the muffins using commercial yeast. Also, the smell while the buns were cooking in the oven was stronger than usual adding to one of the basic pleasures of making bread; the smell as it cooks. The combination of the flavor of the dough with the cheese filling was really wonderful. We couldn't get enough of it. So although the use of biga was born of necessity (a shortage of yeast during the corona-19 outbreak) it has opened up a whole new dimension of bread making that we would not have tried otherwise. Once having tasted the wonderful flavor of this bread we will be using biga as much as possible.

Hanami 2020 #3 with Uni and tuna from Catalina ３日目の花見、カタリナの刺身

After we had our first hanami celebration meal of Tako Grill take out, we received some shashimi items from Catalina Offshore products. It is rare now-a-days that they have gold uni from California but they had it and I ordered it with Pacific bluefin tuna loin, salmon and "ankimo" Monkfish liver. The fish arrived Saturday and we had our second hanami of tuna sashimi and a half of uni that evening. The other items contributed to the third continuation of hanami. I prepared half of the uni as "shio-uni" 塩うに or salted uni. The uni arrived in this plastic container which works much better than traditional wood tray.

The uni was nicely formed (not fragmented or dissolved). It was a nice orange color. Its been a while since we had uni from Catalina. We have been getting some uni from Maruhide but this one was pretty good.

I enjoyed half as sashimi and prepared the other half as "Shio uni" or salted uni. I read that this was a very usual preparation in Aomori prefecture 青森県 which is the norther most part of the main land Japan, "Honshu"本州. Most of the recipes (all in Japanese) call for 100 grams of uni and 12 grams of salt. Place the uni slightly apart in a flat sealable container lined with a paper towel, and sprinkle with the salt (see below). I put on the lid and placed it in the refrigerator for three hours. After three hours, moisture came out and was absorbed by the paper towel. Since we were going to consume the uni the next day, I just move the uni to a smaller sealable container. If you use a sterilized container (a glass jar sterilized  in boiling water, cooled and dried), the uni should last at least 1 week in the refrigerator).

In any case, I forgot to take a picture when we had this the next day. To serve it I made a bottom layer of thinly sliced mini cucumber on a plate and put the salted uni on the top. We folded the cucumber and uni into single serving seasoned nori sheets 味付け海苔 and enjoyed the combination of flavors. The uni became bit more creamy with more intense flavor. Definitely I will use this technique to preserve and enhance the flavor of uni in the future.

In any case, we had the remaining tuna two ways; one is tuna cubes with avocado 鮪とアボカドの角切り(seasoned with finely chopped garlic, sesame oil and soy sauce).

Another was just straightforward tuna sashimi with blanched broccoli with sesame dressing ブロッコリーの胡麻和え, salt broth snap peas スナップ豌豆の塩びたし, Japanese omelet 出汁巻 and "asazuke" 浅漬け of cucumber and daikon.

In any case, we had a very good 3rd hanami.

Hanami at home 2020

This is the small "Somei Yoshino" 染井吉野 cherry tree we planted to replace the 30+ year old cherry tree destroyed in a nor'easter in 2018. It is still fairly small but it is in full bloom. Another older, larger tree is just 80% in bloom and the third small one blossomed early and now the flowers are gone. Because of the Covid19 pandemic, all restaurants in our area are closed or only open for takeout. So, one weekday, I placed a takeout order for sashimi and sushi from Tako Grill and picked it up on the way home.

Tako Grill was running with minimal staff, Terry at the sushi bar, his wife managing the floor and one cook in the kitchen. Shown below is our sashimi takeout. They had toro, hamachi, uni with squid and Japanese "tai" snapper cured on kelp ("Kobu jime).

Since the little cherry tree was in full bloom and we had a lovely sashimi/sushi takeout, I put together the plate shown below and declared an impromptu  hanami, .

We also got out ususal line up of sushi (toro and hamachi), and California roll (with real lump crab).

The small cherry tree only reaches just above the railing of our deck but it is still beautiful. The sashimi was great. Even the uni was from Maine, it was especially good.

We really enjoyed this and when the sashimi plate was empty we moved on to the sushi without missing a beat. In these trying times, little moments like this are especially cherished and appreciated. We sincerely hope all restaurants and other business can weather this and will soon be open for regular business again. In the meantime, thanks goodness for takeout. Stay safe!

Salmon cake サーモンケーキ

When it comes to what we eat and how we prepare it, we sometimes find ourselves in a rut. For example, almost every week I get a filet of salmon weighing 1 and 1/2 lbs; "the portion of the filet close to the head, please". I scale and remove the belly portion, and make 4 filets with the rest. I salt and dry them in the refrigerator with the skin side up for few days before cooking. This preparation results in really wonderful crunchy skin when the salmon is cooked. We snarf up the cooked skin from all the filets like potato chips and eat them along with 2 of the filets. We use the remaining filets for salmon salad which we then eat over the next week. To break this rut, I attempted to make salmon cakes from the dried cooked salmon. Since the salmon was cooked, I needed some kind of binder to make the salmon into cakes. I decide to use raw shrimp paste. The cakes held together and came out nicely. Interestingly, however, they tasted primarily of salmon without a hint of shrimp.

Ingredients:
3 small salmon filets, cooked and skin (removed) (eaten previously while still crispy after salmon was first cooked). Crush them in a Ziploc bag to make small flakes.
6 frozen raw shrimp (I used Argentinean red shrimp), thawed, shelled, and made into a paste by chopping them finely with a chef's knife.
1/2 onion, finely chopped and sautéed in olive oil until transparent, let it cool.
1 tbs chopped fresh dill
Salt and pepper for seasoning

For dredging
flour, egg water and Panko bread crumbs

Oil for deep frying

Directions:
Mix the ingredients. I was not sure if I would have to add more binders such as flour and egg but the shrimp paste worked well and I could make small cakes (#1) without much difficulty. I dredged them in flour, egg water and Panko (#2). Deep fried for a few minutes turning occasionally until golden brown and cooked through (the only ingredient that needed to be cooked was the shrimp paste) (#4).

This was a sort of proof of concept but the shrimp paste really worked well as a binder without adding strong flavor of its own. Making salmon cakes this way may be a bit of work as compared to using uncooked salmon or making salmon salad but it is another good way to use leftover cooked salmon. Drying the filets intensifies the flavor in a very good way. The cakes reheated nicely in the toaster oven making a very nice appetizer. Great snack to start the evening.

Six "otoshi" appetizers お通し6種類

Although I secretly aspire to come up with 6 appetizers to start a meal like we enjoyed at two special izakayas, "Suiko" 酔香 or "Shuhai" 酒杯  in Japan, my appetizer count usually falls short. But one evening I found I could fairly easily come up with a set of 5 appetizers.  After giving it some thought I realized I could make one more for a total of six. Yay! The extra dish, however, did not make the group pic. Its portrait is, nonetheless, shown below.

The upper row from left to right are Chinese-style squid salad (store-bought) with my sugar snap in salt broth, grilled fish cake (store bought) with blanched broccolini dressed in mustard soy sauce, Russian marinated salmon (leftover from the previous evening). (It had been marinading for 2 days by then). The lower row from left to right are octopus leg, cucumber slices and Campari tomato dressed in sumiso sauce and "mizuna" oshitashi 水菜のお浸しtopped with bonito flakes.

Although it missed the group picture, the sixth appetizer was; salmon sashimi and avocado cubes dressed in soy sauce, sesame oil, chiffonade of perilla and finely chopped garlic. The salmon was leftover from the prior evening. I made a slight modification by salting one side and searing it with a kitchen torch before cutting it into cubes. This added an additional grilled flavor and slight crusty texture.

The dish shown below is Chinese-style squid salad 中華風イカサラダ  bought at our Japanese grocery store. The variation of this appears to be available at Catalina offshore products as well.

Below is a small deep fried fish cake which is almost always available at our Japanese grocery store. This appears to be locally made and is pretty good. We heat it up in the toaster oven. I dressed blanched broccolini florets with mustard soy sauce (I now make several Japanese sauces in small squeeze bottles and store them in the refrigerator for instant use).

This was leftover Russian marinaded salmon I made the night before. This marinaded a total of 2 days and was almost completely "chemically" cooked but the onion was better now (marinating just overnight,  the sweet onion was a bit too raw). I topped this with salmon roe and garnished it with perilla.

The dish below came about due to a mistake I made. I thought I got a bunch of edible chrysanthemum 春菊 but instead it was Japanese mizuna 水菜. I blanched it very quickly for 20 seconds, drained and cooled it down by fanning and squeezed out the moisture (I did this in the morning and kept it in a Ziploc bag in the fridge.) I made this to "ohitashi" お浸し("hitasu" in Japanese is to "soak", I made the sauce with equal parts Japanese dashi and concentrated noodle sauce and  "soaked" the mizuna) and topped it with bonito flakes. My wife preferred edible chrysanthemum but this was different and nice in its own right.

We still had the tip portion of the octopus leg left over. I just cut it up into small chunks and mixed the pieces with vinegared cucumber slices and quartered Campari tomato and dressed in sumiso (from the squeeze bottle I prepared earlier).

So with the help of store-bought and leftover items from the previous evening, I finally made a set of 6 appetizer to start the evening--mission accomplished!

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!