New Year Soba 2022 新年そば 2022

When we get Sushi Taro Osechi すし太郎お節, we also order  "toshi-koshi soba" 年越しそば or “going-over-the-year soba” every year. This soba is definitely very special since it is hand-made and hand-cut (or “Teuchi-soba” 手打ちそば)  by Chef Kitayama. We remember when we had an omakase counter dinner some years ago before Covid, he discussed making soba with us. He showed us some soba dough which was too dry and talked about how he was planning on getting special “soba flour”  蕎麦粉 or buckwheat flour from Japan.  We really appreciate this New Year soba because it's quality reflects Chef Kitayama's dedication. This year, the soba came as a complete kit with the dipping sauce and all the garnishes. It also included more precise instructions, from the chef, on how to prepare and serve the soba including the final directive; “slurp”.

I am repeating myself but when I was growing up, my family never had a tradition of "toshikoshi soba" or eating soba on New Year’s eve.  Now, we also tend not to eat soba New Year eve but rather we enjoy the soba in the New Year. We hope, despite the delay in consumption,  the same effects of bringing good luck and long life will be in effect. We've sometimes had the Sushi Taro soba as a warm soba but this time following the chef's instructions, we had the soba cold with dipping sauce (The way I served is called “mori-soba” 盛り蕎麦. If you are interested in different ways of serving and the respective names for soba dishes, please refer to Wikipedia). Although we rarely have cold soba, I remembered that we have a special soba serving plate/basket called “Soba-seiro” 蕎麦せいろ and a soba dipping bowl called “soba-choko” 蕎麦猪口 (which I use to make chawan-mishi). So this is the "Mori soba" set I served as a lunch on the 2nd day of the New Year.

A good dashi smell was perversive as soon as I opened the dipping sauce container. It was a gentle and great dipping sauce.

The condiments included (from left to right) finely chopped scallion or "kizami negi" 刻みネギ, tempura bits, "tenkasu" 天かす or "agedama" 揚げ玉. I added thin strips of nori called "Kizami nori" 刻みのり.

Other condiments included (from left to right), grated daikon or "daikon oroshi" 大根おろしand wasabi わさび (as soon as I opened a small container, a nice wasabi aroma wafted out. It was clearly freshly grated real wasabi).

I also served Russian marinated salmon with ikura. This year, I added mustard in the marinade which gave it a nice but a bit different flavor.

The soba had nice aroma and nice bite to it. The dipping sauce was very gentle and perfect. Adding the wasabi gave very fresh but not spicy hot flavor. The tenkasu was still crunchy and flavorful. Perfect soba dish for the New Year's lunch.

Happy New Year 2022 明けましておめでとう 2022.

Happy New Year 2022! The pandemic still persists with the Omicron variant making it debut and spreading so quickly just when we thought things were starting to come under control and using a quote from the movie Jaws "it was safe to go back in the water again".  In any case, both my wife and I took all the precautions; being vaccinated and boosted. We sincerely hope we can get past this soon.

This is the year of tiger according to Chinese/Japanese zodiac signs. We thought we had a larger tiger figurine but these are what we had. The two shown below look somewhat like cats rather than tigers.

The one shown here really looks like a tabby cat. It is made of carved wood and is one of a full set of the 12 zodiac figures we got in Kyoto on one of our trips to Japan. This year, I decided not to get "Kagami-mochi" 鏡餅 new years decoration since we generally do not finish the round mochi inside. 

When it comes to traditional Japanese New Year food, we look forward to and revel in the routine (or some may call it a rut) that we've developed over the years. First off is the expectation of the wonderful goodies contained in the Sushi Taro Osechi 寿司太郎お節 on 12/31/21 or "oomisoka" 大晦日 in Japanese.  Picking it up on New Year eve is an excursion we generally look forward to, although it is a bit of an arduous drive going into town and back. It was especially so this year when we discovered various parts of the route were closed to cars that day and only open to bike traffic. But it was worth it. We will be hitting the Osechi box this evening. We established the tradition of having our usual breakfast with cappuccino and the choice of various holiday breads such as stollen or panettone for the first day of the new year or "Gantan" 元旦. Then, for lunch, we have the more traditional Japanese New Year soup or "Ozouni" お雑煮 as well as some of the auspicious foods served for the New Year as shown in the next picture.

The next picture is a close-up assortment of "good luck" foods I served.

Some came from the Osechi box such as the fish cake 紅白蒲鉾 (#3) (since I did not get any red and white fish cakes this year), small fish じゃこの有馬煮 (#1), shrimp 小海老甘露煮 (#2) and black beans 黒豆 (#5). This year I was lucky to be able to get salted herring roe or Kazuniko 数の子 from the grocery section at Tako Grill. The amount was not too much and just right. I prepared kazunoko marinated in sake lee and miso かずのこの粕味噌漬け(#4). I also served salmon kelp rolls 鮭の昆布巻き and the datemaki 伊達巻 New Year's omelet roll (#7) I like to make based on my Mother's recipe. I also served salmon "Russian" marinade 鮭のロシア漬け which again was something special my mother used to make. I made it some days ago, so it had cured enough to eat. I also served simmered root vegetables including the symbolic "renkon" lotus root, "kobo" burdock root, bamboo shoot and carrot (#9).

Now the "ozouni" New Year soup. New Year is the rare occasion when I use this genuine Japanese lacquerware bowl that my mother gave us many many years ago.

Although you can not see it, the "mochi" 餅 rice cake is placed in a deep fried tofu or "abura-age" 油揚げpouch. I usually seal the pouch with a kanpyo 干瓢 (or gourd peel) tie. But in recent years I have not been able to find kanpyo and I used up what I had for the salmon kelp rolls. So this year, I had to improvise by blanching a whole scallion and using that to tie the tofu pouch. Other items in the soup included shrimp (from Great Alaska seafood), chicken tenderloin from some sous vide chicken breast I made, and vegetables including shiitake mushroom, daikon, gobo, and carrot. For the green, I used rapini flower buds. The shrimp was particularly good. I poached them gently in the broth with the shells on for a few minutes, took them out and shelled them before placing them on the top of the soup.

As usual, I served "daikon namasu" 大根なます with "ikra"  salmon roe いくら and a slice of boiled octopus leg 茹蛸.

Another salmon dish is sautéed salmon in sweet vinegar or 鮭の南蛮漬け.

Although this was lunch, no New Year feast is complete without the symbolic libation of sake (Koshi-no-homare hiyaoroshi 越の誉　冷やおろし). We toasted 2022 with one glass each to commemorate the New Year. This was a good New Year lunch covering many good luck foods. Let's hope it portends similar fortune for the rest of the year.

Cashew tomato curry with cheese curds (and chicken) カシュートマトカレー

As we mentioned earlier, with an abundance of homemade buttermilk, my wife has started making cheese using 4% milk and the homemade buttermilk. (One aspect of using heirloom cultures such as the one we are using for buttermilk is that you have to keep using them to keep them viable and active.) As a result we now have an abundance of homemade cheese curd. Although we enjoy eating it plain or marinated in olive oil and various spices including jalapeño, there is a limit to how much we can eat. My wife found this curry recipe and thought it would be a good way to further diversify the use of our abundant cheese curd supply. The original recipe was vegan but our version is not, since we added barbecued chicken. This is a very interesting and unique curry (for us) since it uses emulsified raw cashews and pureed tomato in addition to the usual Indian spices. It has a nice fresh tomato flavor and slow heat. The browned cheese curd substitute for meat was something new for us and we really liked it. Later, since we had extra chicken meat from a Weber cooked chicken, we added the dark meat which meant the dish was no longer vegan. But the chicken really “kicked it up a notch”; adding an additional smokey layer of flavor. The next picture shows how we served it with rice, tomatoes and broccoli for lunch. As usual, I ask my wife to take over.

Ingredients:
for the cashew puree
1/2 cup (2 oz.) raw cashews
1/2 cup boiling chicken broth

For the curry
4 Tbs. (2 oz.) butter (1 tsp. to brown the cheese curd and 3 tsp. for the curry)
8 oz. cheese curd cut into 1 inch cubes (firm tofu could be substituted)
2 cups tomato puree
1/8 to 1/4 tsp. cayenne powder
1/2 tsp. garam masala
1/2 tsp. paprika
1 tsp. granulated sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
Optional chicken broth if the sauce gets too thick.

For the chicken
dark meat from barbecued chicken amount to taste
Since the meat came from the chicken legs it was a bit dry. So we cooked it again in the Instantpot (the chicken meat, 1/2 cup of chicken broth at high pressure for 35 minutes with natural depressurization). The chicken tasted much better and was extremely tender after its encounter with the Instantpot.

Directions:
To make the cashew puree combine the cashews and the hot chicken broth. Let soak for 30 minutes. Then puree until smooth in a mini food processor (#1). Puree the tomatoes and set aside. (We used canned tomatoes)(#2). Cut the cheese into 1 inch squares (#3). Put 1 tsp. of the butter in a frying pan and melt until slightly browned. Add the cheese curd and cook until golden brown on both sides (#4). Set aside. Add the remaining 3 Tbs. of butter to the pan. Once it melts add the cashew puree (#5). Then add the cayenne powder, garam masala, paprika and sugar. Bloom the flavors. Cook the mixture until fully blended. Add the tomatoes and blend completely. Cook until the mixture thickens slightly. Add the cheese curd and cook until the mixture darkens (about 5 -10 minutes) (#6). (A splatter guard would be recommended because the mixture may tend to spit.) If the mixture gets too thick add some of the chicken broth. Add the chicken and continue cooking for 15 to 20 minutes. Serve with a drizzle of cream on top. 

 

We really liked this curry. The browned cheese curd was something new for us. We didn’t know it could be cooked like that and it added a new dimension for our approach to cheese curd. We will probably use it in other recipes. It was crispy on the outside with a pleasant browned butter flavor and soft on the inside. The curry sauce was very smooth with a bright tomato flavor and a slow heat. We found the sauce itself was surprisingly filling. We realized this is because it is nut based, so in essence, we were eating handfuls of cashew nuts. The version without the chicken was very nice but we thought the addition of barbecued chicken really made it even better by adding chicken and barbecued smokey flavor. We learned a lot from making this curry and it really expanded our “curry horizons”. We’ll be making this and various versions of it in the future. 

“Shoga-yaki” ginger pork bowl “tei-shoku” lunch 豚の生姜焼き丼定食

A few weeks ago, my wife suggested that it has been quite a while since we had sukiyaki すき焼き and it would be nice to have some. I agreed, but when I went to the Japanese grocery store, I forgot to get the frozen "Sukiyaki meat" すき焼肉. So, the next time I went I was proud of myself for not forgetting the meat. But apparently I picked up the wrong thing. My first clue was when my wife said, “I didn’t know sukiyaki is made with pork, I thought it was beef.” Instead of sukiyaki beef, in my haste I had picked up thinly sliced pork for "shouga-yaki" 生姜焼き. Since this package was next to the "shabu-shabu" シャブシャブ beef, I assumed it was also beef but for sukiyaki. In my enthusiasm I bought not one but two packages of the stuff. All was not lost, however, as I may have mentioned before, in Hokkaido 北海道, where I am originally from, many families use pork instead of beef for sukiyaki as was the case in my family. So, we went ahead and used one of the packs of pork to make sukiyaki. It was not good. The pork was too lean and too thickly cut. It got hard when cooked as sukiyaki. (So note to self: next time when at the Japanese grocery store get appropriate sukiyaki beef). Meanwhile, since I had bought two packages of this pork, I had one package left and it was clear that it would not be used for sukiyaki. So, one weekend I decided to use the pork as originally intended and made “shoga-yaki” ginger pork. Pork shoga-yaki 豚の生姜焼き is a very popular dish in Japan. When I was a college student, coffee shops near the university served lunch in addition to tea and coffee. In addition to  “Western-style” lunches such as sandwiches or spaghetti, most of the coffee shops also served Japanese-style  bento 弁当 or teishoku 定食* and shoga-yaki was among the popular ones. I am sure this has not been changed even now.

*Digression alert: I am sure it is no need to explain “bento” but here it goes anyway. When “bento” is served in restaurant/coffee shop, it is usually a lidded rectangular box which contains the entire meal but unlike pre-packaged bento, the rice and dishes are warm or just made. "Teishuku" (please follow the link for illustrated guide) is the Japanese concept of a "complete" meal or "meal set" which includes a bowl of  rice, soup, tsukemono 漬け物 (pickled or more likely salted vegetables), main dish (protein) and small "kobachi" 小鉢 side dish or bowl. In many "Taishu-shokudo" 大衆食堂 or "public" eateries which serve those who want drinks with food and those who want a complete meal, many different teishoku are available (the main protein dish varies and can be grilled fish, sashimi, or meat etc) but the remaining items, or “sides” such as soup, tuskemono, are usually the same for each available teishoku. The main and side dishes can be had as a single dish without other items (this is great especially if you are just drinking). It could also be "teishoku" for the price of a few more yen. 

So, this is  my rendition of "shoga-yaki" donburi teishoku 生姜焼き丼定食. In this case, the main protein and rice were combined as a donburi.

The main dish shown in the next picture is a bed of rice to which I added pork shouga-yaki with onion, seasoned shiitake mushroom (this was from dried shiitake and seasoned in "ama-kara" 甘辛 or sweet and salty with mirin and soy sauce) and blanched broccoli.

Miso soup is wakame ワカメ sea weed, "abura-age" 油揚げ fried tofu, silken tofu 絹ごし豆腐 and chopped scallion ネギ.

The "Kobachi" side dish was simmered root vegetable including "renkon" lotus root, "gobo" burdock root, "takenoko" bamboo shoot, shiitake mushroom, and "konnyaku" devil's tongue and blanched sugar snap in salt broth.

The tsukemono is cucumber, daikon, nappa cabbage, jalapeño pepper, and ginger (I salted this a bit stronger than I usually do; with salt 3% of the weight of the veggies instead of usual 2% and also added a dash of Vodka which makes it last much longer without changing the taste. (With this preparation it can easily last for at least one week in the refrigerator).

How to make pork shouga-yaki ginger pork (Although I posted "shouga-yaki" over 11 years ago, this time,  I am using a more appropriate, albeit not perfect, cut of meat). I am sure that there are so many variations and preferences and, of course, you could use other meat such as beef but this is what I made.

The essence of this dish is thinly sliced meat sautéed and seasoned sweet soy sauce flavored with ginger. Using lean meat can make tough shouga-yaki and using fatty cuts such as thinly sliced pork belly will prevent that but the traditional cut to be used is "pork roast" meat 豚のロース cut thinly (thin enough but not paper thin).

Ingredients:
Thinly sliced pork, 4-5 slices for one meal size serving (in Japan, specially packaged "shouga-yaki" pork is available widely. The one I got here is a bit too lean, the perfect cut has more fat. I used the entire package which is about 20 slices).

2-3 tsp neutral oil

Onion slices, optional

For marinade:
Mirin, soy sauce, and sake (1:1:1) ratio, enough to marinate the meat plus more to add while cooking.
Grated ginger (amount arbitrary, totally depends on your taste, I used whole grated ginger but you can use just the juice from grated ginger).
Dash of dark sesame oil
(optionally, grated onion).

Directions:
Marinate the meat. The amount of the marinade is enough to cover all meat slices and a bit more (additional 1/4 cup). I marinaded for 1 hour in the refrigerator.
I drained the marinade (the excess marinade reserved) and spread the meat slices on a paper towel to remove excess marinade.
In the non-stick frying pan, add 2 tsp neutral oil on medium flame. 

Add onion slices and cook until soft and somewhat transparent, set aside

Cook the meat slices, spread out without over lapping, in batches. One side 30 seconds and the other side 15 seconds. Do not overcook (the meat will finish cooking when cooked with the marinade later).
Set aside the cooked meat slices.
When all the slices are cooked, add the marinade to the pan (if not enough add more sake, mirin and soy sauce).
Add back the cooked meat with the accumulated juice and the onion .
Quickly cook and coat each slice with the marinade. Take it out and set aside.
Since I was planning to make a doumburi, I added a small amount of water at the end and heated the marinade to make sauce.

Assembly:
Top the rice with the shouga-yaki pork slices (I used 3 slices per bowl).
Pour in the sauce from the frying pan (just slightly moisten and season the rice).
Add any other garnish or topping (such as ginger julienne in vinegar or "benishouga" 紅生姜). I added seasoned shiitake mushrooms and blanched broccoli.

Compared to the sukiyaki we made with this pork, the shouga-yaki came out much better. The meat was tender and well seasoned. Perfect lunch for the weekend.

Buttermilk biscuit redux バターミルクビスケット 第二弾

This is one of my wife's baking projects. Since we really liked our old friend the “tried-and-true buttermilk biscuit she used to make many years ago and reintroduced to our diet recently, when she found a recipe labeled “better” buttermilk biscuits, she had to try it.  This is basically a "redux" of the previous recipe with some improvements. The major difference is that it includes an egg. It also has a slightly different way of doing the envelop folds that cause the flakey layers such as those shown in the picture below. The end product is very flakey but a bit more moist which makes it a bit better than the previous recipe. As usual I will ask my wife to  with "how-to"es.

Ingredients:
3 cups (360 gr.) flour (or 2 cups AP flour and 1 cup plus 2 Tbs. Cake flour)
3 Tbs. Sugar
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp. Salt
1/2 tsp. Baking soda
1 1/2 stick (170 gr.) cold butter cut into small cubes (I froze the butter cubes)
1 large egg
3/4 cup (180 Milliliters) cold buttermilk

Directions:
Mix the dry ingredients (flour through soda) in a bowl. Using your hands quickly work the butter into the dry ingredients until the pieces of butter are the size of small beans. (It’s ok to have the butter in visible chunks because that is what contributes to the flakiness). In another bowl combine the egg and the buttermilk. Whisk with a fork to combine. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Lightly mix until a crumbly dough forms. Turn out onto a floured surface and using a rolling pin roll the dough into a 1 inch thick 2 1/2 inch wide strip with the narrow end facing you. Fold the dough into thirds as you would a letter. (This creates a thin but long strip of dough which is a slightly different from the usual configuration of a square which is then folded). Turn the dough one quarter turn, roll out into 1 inch thick 2 1/2 inch wide and fold again. Turn, roll it out and fold again. Roll it out one final time and cut into 12 pieces. Put on a cookie sheet covered in parchment paper. Cook in a 400 degree oven for 18 to 20 minutes until the biscuits are golden brown. (If you used frozen butter you may cook a little longer to make sure the centers are cooked.) Cool on a rack.

These biscuits were excellent. They were flakey, had a slight sweetness, the tang of the butter milk and and taste of butter. While they were nicely flakey they were also very moist on the inside. (The biscuits made with the previous recipe while still very good were a bit drier.) This will probably be the buttermilk biscuit recipe we will use in the future. 

Riviera Seafood Club sashimi リビエラシーフードクラブからの刺身

This is my on-going effort to find retailers where I can get sashimi-grade fish. As I have mentioned previously some of the on-line places like "sushi at home" or "fish for sushi" which sold sashimi fish have come and gone. The good and reliable Catalina Offshore Products is still going strong and we still get occasional shipments of sashimi fish from them. When it comes to Uni うに, Maruhide 丸秀 is the place to go. We have gotten frozen blocks of sashimi-grade tuna from "Great Alaska Seafood" and although it is yellowfin tuna, it is better quality than the frozen yellowfin tuna blocks we got from the  Japanese grocery store.  Recently I became aware of another vendor called  "Riviera Seafood Club" (according to the website it was launched in July 2019, and is family-run).  I finally decide to get some akami 赤身 (8oz), chutoro 中トロ (8 oz) and hamachi はまち(8 oz) sashimi from them. Unlike some of the other vendors we have tried, they offered smaller portions which is nice and makes it easier to manage use of the shipment. The chutoro block had one half almost akami and another half of toro. I divided up the block and served the toro part the evening we received the sashimi. The reaming akami was used to make imitation negitoro and cubes of avocado and tuna next evening. The hamachi still had the skin attached which needed to be removed. The picture below shows the serving of the various sashimi.

The quality of akami was good. The chutoro was good in terms of texture and taste but had some sinew (which happens sometimes especially in the toro parts of tuna). The hamachi was ok but didn’t appear to be super fresh. I marinated it in sake, soy sauce and grated ginger juice for the next evening, which made it more palatable.

I think this is a good alternative source of sashimi. It came exactly as they suggested (ordered on Wednesday and arrived on Friday). The only odd thing was that there was no communication. No order confirmation email or shipping notice aside from a text message I received from FedEx concerning expected delivery date.We may try this place again. It is good to know we have more than one place where we can get sashimi.

Chicken onion sauce curry 鶏肉のタマネギソースカレー

This is another of my wife's curry porojects. This time, instead of the usual pork, she used chicken thighs. This one uses an onion-centric sauce with the usual Indian spices. Since we decided that we like potatoes in any curry, she added potatoes as well. We also added blanched broccoli and skinned Campari tomato while heating the curry which adds colors as well as fresh taste. I will ask my wife to provide the ingredients and directions.

Ingredients:
4 chicken thighs
2 to 3 onions diced
1 1/2 inch cube of ginger peeled and coarsely chopped
Several garlic cloves (or as many as like) peeled
1 Tbs. Ground coriander
1 Tbs. Ground cumin
1/2 tsp. Ground turmeric
1/4 to 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
2-3 tomatoes peeled
3 to 4 small red potatoes peeled
2 tsp. Salt
Some chicken broth as needed
1/2 tsp garam masala
Several tablespoon of plain yogurt
Finely chopped parsley


Directions:

The line up of spices is shown in the first picture below. Take 1/2 of the chopped onions, the garlic and ginger put into a blender and blend to a paste. Set aside. Sauté the remaining onions in a frying pan. Cook until slightly browned. (Second picture below) Remove from pan and set aside. Add the onion/garlic/ginger paste to the pan (Last picture below) and fry until it too turns slightly brown. Add the spices (coriander through cayenne) until they “bloom” and become fragrant. Add back the sautéd onions and the tomatoes and salt. Stir until all is blended. Add in the potatoes and the chicken. If more liquid is needed add some chicken broth. Cook until the chicken is cooked and becomes tender. Finally add the garam masala and several spoonfuls of yogurt. Top with the parsley just before serving.

This is another good curry. The onions add a pervasive gentle sweetness underlying the complexities of the other spices. The cayenne pepper gives is a slight “sing” of hotness that builds slightly. The chicken becomes flavorful and tender, just falling off the bone. The potatoes also absorbs the flavors and a nice robustness. A great dish with rice or bread for lunch or dinner.