A spoonful appetizer 一口スプーン前菜

My wife gave me some new plates and bowls for Christmas which required us to rearrange things to make a room for them. During these activities, we found spoons my wife got for me some time ago which were meant to serve a just one-swallow/bite appetizer.  Since they newly resurfaced, I promptly tried a one-swallow/bite appetizer using the spoon. The handles of the spoons are bent so that they can sit on the plate without a handle sticking over the edge. I served this with the last of New Year’s salmon kelp roll and Russian marinaded salmon.

This was just a whim-of-the moment dish. Since I had Cauliflower purée which I made a few days ago, I just put a small amount on the spoon and topped it with soy sauce  marinated “ikura” salmon roe and micro green perilla from our window sill herb garden. This combination worked well. We had this with cold sake and it went very well.

This was quite good. Although our initial cauliflower purée was made with cauliflower cooked in milk, recently I have been making in an abbreviated quick method.

Ingredients:
One small head of cauliflower, florets separated
1-2 tbs unsalted butter
1 cup warm milk

salt to taste

Directions:
Steam the cauliflower using a basket steamer for 10-15 minutes until very soft.
Place the cauliflower in a plastic container for immersion blender

Add 2/3 of the milk and blend using an immersion blender in high-speed
Add more milk for the nice silky consistency if needed.
Add the butter in thick pats
Season with salt and blend until very smooth and silky

This is wonderful way to prepare cauliflower. This purée can be used in many different ways. The smooth texture of the cauliflower purée was a great contrast to the burst of saltiness from the ikura.

Olive and black pepper savory cookies

This is part of my wife's savory cookies project.  This is based on the recipe my wife found  in a blog called "Raspberry Cupcake". The original recipe calls for Kalamata olives but we did not have any so she used pimento stuffed green olive instead. (Hey! They were for my Martini!).

This is a savory shortbread and perfect with a glass of wine.

As usual, I ask my wife to fill in the rest.

Ingredients:

50 gm olives
1 1/4 cup (150 gm) flour
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper (or to taste)
1 stick (140 gm) butter
2 Tbs. sugar
1 large egg yolk

Directions:
Measure the dry ingredients (flour, soda, salt, pepper) in a bowl and set aside. Cream the butter, sugar and egg yolk until fully incorporated and fluffy. Add the dry ingredients to the the butter egg mixture. Fold in the olives. Roll the mixture into “logs” and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate the dough for at least an hour. (Dough can be refrigerated for up to week or frozen for up to a month.) To cook: preheat the oven to 350 F, slice the logs into 1/4 inch pieces and put them on a parchment covered cookie sheet. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes or until golden.

These cookies are spicy (from the pepper) with a  slight sweet overtone (from the sugar) and bright bursts of saltiness (from the olives). They make a nice addition to an appetizer tray served with other cheeses, prosciutto and a glass of red wine. 

Steamed renkon balls 蒸し蓮根まんじゅう

This is on the theme of fresh renkon lotus root. This is another renkon ball 蓮根まんじゅう but instead of deep frying, this was steamed/microwaved (hence healthier). The original recipe calls for "ginnan" 銀杏 ginko nuts but we did not have it. So I used shelled edamame 枝豆.

I added gentle broth made of kelp-bonito dashi pack and shirodashi 白だし seasoning. I garnished it with more edamame and blanched snow peas.

Ingredients:
200 grams grated fresh renkon, skin peeled, excess moisture drained
1 tbs potato starch
4 shrimp, thawed, shelled and cut into bit size chunks
20 shelled edamame, cooked

For broth.
200 ml kelp and bonito dashi (made from dashi pack), heated
2-3 tbs shirodashi 白だし or 1tbs mirin and 1 tbs light colored soy sauce

you could thicken the broth by adding potato starch slurries (optional)

Direction:
Mix all ingredients in a bowl.
Made 6 small balls.
Using a microwave safe silicon container, I microwaved for about 2 minutes or until done.

Place one ball in a small bowl, add hot broth and garnish.

The texture is very different from the deep fried version. Much softer and gentler. We like this variation and it is easier to make. Some recipes suggest wrapping the balls in plastic wrap and microwave but I did not like the idea of microwaving in plastic wrap. That’s why I used a microwave safe silicon container instead.

Ricotta sweet buns リコッタチーズバンズ

My Wife decided to make these muffins because she had made some ricotta cheese and wanted to use it before it went bad. (How the cheese was made is for a future post). These are very good breakfast muffins. They are more hearty than sweet. The combination of cheese and bread is very pleasing. The cheese has a nice lemon flavor. I saw her working on these buns and it looked very tedious to me with multiple steps. When it comes to baking bread, I am in the school of the simpler the better like no-knead breads. So I am grateful my wife is of the tedious multi-step school. 

My wife likes buns or muffins which have various kinds of filling but some times the moisture in the stuffing makes a gaping space above the filling. As a result of this recipe she learned that an indentation on the top of the dough then filled with the top open, will circumvent this problem. As you can see below, there is no gaps between the buns and the filling.

Ingredients:
for dough
1 cup whole milk
10 Tbs. butter melted
1 large egg plus 2 egg yolks
3 1/2 cups (496 gms) AP flour
1/3 cup (56.7 gms) sugar
2 1/4 tsp yeast
1 1/2 tsp salt

for filling
6 oz. (170 gms.) cream cheese softened
6 oz. (170 gms) ricotta cheese
3 Tbs. sugar
1 Tbs. AP flour
zest of one lemon
1/2 tsp. lemon flavoring
1 tsp. vanilla

Directions:
For the dough: Whisk milk, eggs, and butter together. Whisk flour, sugar, yeast and salt together in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. Slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients until fully incorporated. Increase speed and knead for 8 to 12 minutes. Transfer to a bowl and lightly coat surface with vegetable oil. Cover and allow dough to rise until doubled.

For the filling: Cream the cream cheese with the sugar, flour, lemon zest and flavorings. Add the ricotta cheese and mix until fully combined.

Measure out the individual amount of filling to use for each muffin so the filling is distributed completely and evenly. These calculations are for this batch of bread. Each batch may have different final weights so each batch should be weighed independently. I wanted muffins that were about 50 gm size. The total dough weighed 1020 gm/ 50gm = 20 pieces. The total weight of the filling was 452 gm/20 pieces = 22.6 gm/piece. Measure out and set aside.

Assembly: After dough has risen punch down. Divide dough according to weight (in this case 50 gm) and form into rolls. Place the rolls on a parchment lined baking sheet. Allow to rise until doubled in size. Using the bottom of a glass or cup slowly press down on the center of the muffin until the cup touches the sheet. (#1 and #2). (BTW, my wife used a very special hand-made very thin-walled porcelain Japanese sake cup for this because she said the size and shape were just right. Meanwhile I held my breath hoping it would survive its application to this purpose).

To prevent sticking dip, the cup in some flour. Beat 1 egg with 1 Tbs. milk. Brush the dough, including the indentation with the egg wash. Take the pre-measured cheese pieces and place in the indentation of the dough. Smooth out with a spatula (#3).

Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 25 minutes or until golden brown (#4).

These are very nice muffins. They are definitely not a "danish"-- they are not too sweet. The bread has a nice firm texture. The cheese mixture goes nicely with the flavor of the bread. The lemon flavor of the cheese really comes through adding a pleasant burst of fresh tartness. 

New year's eve sashimi 2020 年越しの刺身

 For New Year's eve, we started with this sashimi. I ordered Atlantic  tuna toro 鮪とろ, octopus leg 蛸, and ikura イクラ (all frozen) from Catalina offshore products at least a month ahead of time because last year I waited too long and when I got around to ordering sashimi for New Year they were sold out. I also got sashimi-grade salmon but it was a large piece and would have been too much so I did not thaw it. The toro piece was small (5oz) but enough for two of us. It contained "ootro" 大トロ and small portion of "chutoro" 中トロ. The octopus legs appeared to have been imported  from Japan.

The rectangular pieces shown on the plate below are ootoro or very fatty tuna. The center flat pieces are chutoro medium fatty tuna. I chopped up the tip of the octopus legs and dressed the pieces with sumiso 酢味噌. I also served the daikon namasu 大根なます I made as well as Russian marinated salmon with ikura on top.

These were good sashimi—very fatty. We had our usual cold sake Tengumai Daiginjo 天狗舞大吟醸  with this. Although we did get Champaign to celebrate the New Year we did not get to it. We had face time with my wife's sister and her fiancé and had a New Year (virtually) together.

Duck leg confit 鴨足のコンフィ

Contemplating Christmas dinner, we decided we weren’t up for Turkey or ham.  Then we saw a video from the Washington post regarding Duck leg confit and thought this would be perfect. We could make it ahead of time and just brown the skin before serving.  Since we were getting some other meat from D'Atagnan, we ordered duck legs and rendered duck fat as well. In addition to the confit duck we served blackened Brussels sprouts and stuffing balls (without the broccoli).

Since I had snow peas, I also cooked them  in the same pan I used for the duck seasoned with salt and black pepper.

Ingredients: (we cooked 4 legs)
4 duck legs (from D'Artagnan, #1 and #2)
Few sprigs of rosemary (or thyme, we used rosemary from our herb garden) (#3)
4 crushed garlic (#3)
Kosher salt
21 oz (3, 7oz containers = 21 oz.) of rendered duck fat

Directions:
In a sealable container which snugly fits 4 legs, salt the bottom, place the duck legs, salt the skin side, add the sprigs of rosemary, and crushed garlic, close the lid and refrigerate overnight (#3)
Next day, remove the rosemary and place the legs in a slow cooker and pour in  the rendered duck fat to cover (#4), transfer the crushed garlic. In a low setting cook the duck legs for 3 hours with a lid on (original recipe used a 250F oven). The meat retracts from the leg bone (#5) indicating it is done. Transfer the duck fat and legs to the sealable container and refrigerate until serving (the recipe said it will keep for a few months and the flavor will improve).

Just before serving:

Dig the leg out from the now congealed duck fat and scrape off excess fat (#6). In a dry frying pan, place the duck leg skin side down on medium low flame (#7), brown the skin until it easily releases  from the pan when moved (7-8 minutes). (If it still sticks don’t force it just let it cook some more until it can be moved easily). Turn over (#8) and cook for a few more minutes.

This was very good but not all skin got crisp since only the center portion had contact with the frying pan. I wonder of we could broil or bake the leg to crisp up the skin. Certainly this is a good dish for festive occasions.

Osechi day 1 and day 2, 2021 元旦と２日の御節

While the Sushitaro osechi lasts, the only “cooking” I have to do is to arrange the items and, as need, warm some of them up using either microwave or toaster oven and, of course, (this is the most strenuous part) open a bottle of sake.

The below was the first sampling. I tend to go for our favorites first. "Kazunoko" 数の子 herring roe, steamed sea urchin むし雲丹, roasted wagyu beef 和牛ローストビーフ are among them.

Here are three of our favorites; smoked oyster 牡蠣燻製 (left lower), karasumi botarga 唐墨 which is lightly toasted and wonderful cured "sawara" mackerel 鰆喜寿司.

This is the second plate;  in the center next to the ikura is monkfish liver terrine 鮟肝豆腐 which is really good.  I put wasabi and soy sauce on the red and white fishcake 紅白蒲鉾 before enjoying.

The yellow ball is soy sauce marinated egg yolk with walnut embedded in the center 黄身胡桃. The texture is really great. Next to the egg yolk on the right is "Koji-pickled Boston mackerel" 鯖麹漬. This is also a great dish with crunchy cubes of either daikon or radish. 

This was the evening of January 2. This time I served in Tsugaru-nuri bento boxes 津軽塗弁当箱 as I did other years. All came from the Sushi Taro box except the small bowl on the upper left.

How many different delicacies are in this box! Of course left lower corner is the karasumi, again lightly toasted.

This is my only contribution. Red radish and cucumber “sunomono”  酢の物, my version of daikon namasu, slices of octopus leg topped with ikura.

This is delicately seasoned in Kyoto-style. I briefly microwaved just to take the chill off.

Although each item is small, there are so many of them; the total was quite filling. We could get used to this.