Early Hanami 早めの花見

We presently have four cherry trees in our backyard; 3 Japanese style trees and one native choke cherry tree. (The choke cherry tree blooms in late spring with lovely veils of white flowers). There was already one mature cherry tree on the property when we moved in over 30 years ago but we planted two additional cherry trees, so we could have spectacular Hanami celebrations in our own yard. While they provided beautiful flowers and shade for many years neither of them survive today. One never did well and remained stunted for the 20 years of its life. While doing some construction in 2010 we discovered the reason. The poor thing was planted over a giant cement jersey wall such as those used to block traffic on a highway. Unbeknownst to us, and to our utter surprise and horror, the builders had used objects such as that as land fill in our backyard. The poor tree had nowhere to plant its feet so it could thrive. After seeing its circumstances we were amazed it even survived as long as it did. The other cherry tree was more fortunate. We apparently planted it in a more favorable spot and it did very well. It formed a large canopy over our deck and was our main cherry tree for hanami but, it reached its demise in 2018 at the hands of a severe Nor’easter wind. So in the face of this cherry tree devastation, we planted a new cherry tree to replace it. This tree is getting taller but does not yet quite match the grandeur of the destroyed old tree it replaced. Meanwhile, 30 some years ago soon after we moved into the house, I was cleaning out a patch of our backyard heavily overgrown with weeds and thick vines when I came across tiny twig of a tree and recognized it was a very young very small volunteer (i.e. not planted but rooted naturally) cherry tree.  I carefully saved it and nurtured it. Now it is over 2 stories tall. (Shown in the pictures below.)  This cherry tree is perfectly positioned to get full sun in the morning and full sun in the evening this time of year. As a result, it is the first of our cherry trees to bloom in the spring. This year spring came early and this cherry tree is in full bloom in Mid March. To celebrate, we had an early Hanami. Because of the location of the tree, it is most visible from the one of the rooms on the second floor. So despite the cold weather and strong winds of the last few days, we were still able enjoy an early Hanami in the comfort of the warm house. 

We will post more details later but we had five dishes for our early Hanami. Three were made from some newly acquired edible lily bulbs, as well as dishes of edible chrysanthemum and lotus root. Luckily daylight saving time kicked in just last Sunday, so sunset comes later than before increasing the time we have to enjoy the cherry blossoms. Even at sunset, however, the cherry blossoms characteristically glow in the ambient light which is always beautiful to see.

Soda Bread with Raisin, Craisin, and Caraway (Soda Bread V4)

Over the years my wife has baked various versions of Irish soda bread. This year my wife initially baked version #3 of Irish soda bread, which was by far our favorite, in preparation for the upcoming St. Paddy’s day. This bread was really great especially with the honey butter she spread on it after a light toasting. I, then, found a recipe called “Americanized Irish soda bread” in the Washington Post which looked interesting and told her about it. She baked this as Irish soda bread (Americanized) version #4. This bread was very good—on a par with version #3 but with a subtly different taste. It had great texture and was slightly sweet from the inclusion of raisins and craisins (dried cranberries).

As usual, my wife modified the recipe mainly due to ingredients we did not have.

Ingredients:
2 cups mixture of raisin and craisins, (substituted for currents called for in the original recipe.)
6 cups (750 grams) all-purpose flour, plus more as needed
3/4 cup (150 grams) granulated sugar
3 tablespoons caraway seeds
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon fine salt
2 cups (480 milliliters) whole buttermilk
8 tablespoons (4 ounces/113 grams) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1/2 cup (120 milliliters) heavy cream
1 large egg
1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Directions:
Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 375 degrees. Line a large, rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a very large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, caraway seeds, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Scatter the dried fruits into the flour and fold them in with a flexible spatula until evenly distributed.
Whisk together the buttermilk, melted butter, cream, egg and the oil until combined. Pour into the flour mixture.
First using a spatula and then hands, stir and mix the dough together. (The original recipe says, “do not use a mixer”.) The dough should be slightly wet but not gloppy. Add a bit more flour, 1 tablespoon at a time, if the dough feels too wet and is spreading. Re-flour your hands and gently knead the dough, turning and folding it over itself, just until it is somewhat firmer, sprinkling more flour on your hands or the work surface as needed. Try not to add too much more flour to the dough.
Divide the dough in half, shaping each portion into a round loaf 5½ to 6 inches in diameter, positioning any seams on the bottom. Do not flatten the loaves, making sure they are shaped more like mounds.
Place the loaves several inches apart on the prepared baking sheet (they will spread a little) but not up against the rim. Use a lame to gently score an X no more than ¼- to ½-inch deep into the top of each loaf (see picture below).

Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, rotating the baking sheet from front to back halfway through, until the loaves are nicely browned and a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. The loaves should also sound hollow when tapped on the bottom (see picture below). Cool completely on a wire rack

Among the 4 versions of soda breads, we like the version 3 and 4 the best.

Pork Curry Quesadilla ポークカレー ケサディア

This was a lunch of impromptu quesadilla made using left-over pork “Vindaloo” curry. My wife’s recent modifications to this curry included the addition of navy beans which makes a richer creamer sauce. We had the curry with rice for lunch several times and only a small amount of curry was left—not enough to make two servings of curry and rice for lunch. My wife suggested we make curry quesadilla. I had one over-ripe avocado which I had to use before it went bad so I made a sort of guacamole. The resulting lunch, consisted of a pork curry and three cheese quesadilla topped with avocado and sour cream. This was really great.

Traditional quesadilla is made from one corn tortilla which is folded in half. We like to use two wheat tortillas which is more convenient for us.

I did not have fresh cilantro but made something resembling guacamole. I also served sesame (udon) noodle salad and celery salad with mushrooms, white beans and feta salad.

We keep tortillas frozen. I removed two and layered them with paper towels to absorb any water from the ice crystals which usually form on their surface.  I microwaved them for 10 seconds. I then heated some oil in the frying pan on medium heat until hot and shimmering then briefly fried both sides of the tortillas. Again using paper towels I blotted off any excess oil.  I turned down the heat, placed one warm tortilla in the pan, and spread the curry on top; it was just the right amount.

I scattered shredded (actually hand chopped) cheeses on top. They included two kinds of cheddar (“sharp” and one actually called “Seriously Sharp”) and smoked gouda. I placed the other tortilla on the top. I cooked this with lid on for several minutes until the cheese melted. I removed the lid and turned the tortilla over and cooked an additional 1-2 minutes. This was a nice quesadilla if not authentic. The flavor of the curry blended perfectly with the guacamole. The tortilla was nice and crunchy. Also, you can’t go wrong with 3 melted cheese flavors and a topping of sour cream. This was a mighty fine lunch.

Celery Salad with Mushrooms, White Beans and Feta きのこ、白インゲン豆、フェタチーズ入りセロリサラダ

We keep celery on hand most of the time. I use it as a part of mirepoix for soup, stew etc. I also use it for salad. Our favorite is thinly sliced celery dressed in powdered kelp and salt called “Konbu-cha” 昆布茶. My wife told me that she came across 5 different celery recipes recently in the Washington Post. We decide to try this celery with mushrooms, white beans and feta. Not intentional but I made some modifications due to available ingredients as well as time constraints. We had this for lunch.

We added a half open-face pumpernickel sandwich using leftover slices of Weber grill roasted pork. I added omelet from an egg I had left over from another dish. This made a really good lunch.

Ingredients:
4-5 stalks of celery, strings removed and cut thinly on bias
1 (15.5 oz) can of white (navy) beans, drained and rinsed (the original recipe calls for 1 cup or 8oz but we used the whole can)
Mushrooms (I used fresh shiitake and oyster mushrooms, the original calls for 12 oz cremini mushrooms), the shiitake (this was quite thick and meaty), cut into quarters, the oyster mushrooms torn into bite sized pieces.
Feta cheese crumbled and to taste

Dressing:
2tbs minced shallot (one small)
2 tablespoons rice vinegar (or winevinegar)
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1⁄2 teaspoon salt
3⁄4 teaspoon sugar
1⁄4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions:
Marinate the celery and the beans in the dressing for 30 minutes (Picture below)

Sauté the mushrooms in a small amount of olive oil in a frying pan seasoned with salt and pepper until cooked with brown spots about 4-5 minutes (using medium high flame so that no moisture comes out and the mushrooms nicely brown instead of steam). (The original recipe calls for roasting them in the oven at 375 for 40 minutes but browning in the pan goes a lot faster).

Assembly:
Chopped fresh herbs (mint, dill and parsley) (we did not have any of fresh herbs so did not use it) mixed into the marinading celery and beans.
Top the salad with the mushrooms and crumbled feta.

We would not ever have thought of this combination of the ingredients for a salad. For the dressing, the taste profile is very similar to the house dressing I make with Dijon mustard, honey, rice vinegar and olive oil. In future we may used my house dressing instead; the mustard makes the dressing emulsify beside adding flavors and honey is better than sugar to add sweetness. We think cooking the  mushrooms in a frying pan is better than roasting them. Roasting takes much longer and often produces charred bits which we do not like but sautéing in a frying pan produces better browned and crispy mushrooms. Although we did not have fresh herbs, this was a good salad. The mushrooms gave a meaty flavor and texture and this is good dish for our vegetarian friends.

Creamy Tomato Soup クリーミィトマトスープ

I get Campari tomatoes almost every week and prepare them by removing the skin. Then I keep them in the refrigerator which is very convenient to make a quick cucumber tomato salad or just add as a side. Often, we can’t use up all the tomatoes and my default is to make them into marinara sauce. This time since we already had a batch of marinara sauce which had been re-heated several times, I decided to make the excess tomatoes into a creamy tomato soup. I served the soup with macaroni salad (for the salad dressing I used mayo, Greek yogurt, Dijon mustard) and couscous salad, Campari tomato and a slice of baguette I made few days ago. I made this bread using biga made of rye flour and buttermilk (My wife prepared this for me). As a result, this baguette had a slightly different flavor which we really liked.

Ingredients:
5 Campari tomatoes, skinned, cut into small chunks
1 small onion, finely diced
1 small stalk of celery, finely diced
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 tsp tomato paste
1 cup water/chicken broth (I used whey from the cheese curd my wife made recently)
1 tsp butter
1 tsp olive oil
1 tsp sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) (to reduce the acidity of the soup, optional*)
1/2 c heavy cream

*Digression alert: If tomato sauce or soup is too acidic, the most common suggestion is to add a small amount of sugar. This may mask the acidic taste but does not reduce the acidity (or does not raise pH). Adding sodium bicarbonate does reduce the acidity. My understanding is that tomato’s acidity mainly come from oxalic acid. So, the addition of bi-carbonate will produce carbon dioxide (CO2 gas), water (H20) and sodium carbonate (Na2CO3). Reportedly, the resulting sodium carbonate may give rise to a “bitter” and “soapy” taste but I have not experienced this. I have found that adding a small amount of sodium bicarbonate definitely makes these tomato containing dishes less acidic without negative effects in taste. The sodium ion from sodium carbonate in water may add some “saltiness” so the salt seasoning may have to be adjusted. It should be noted that when you add bicarbonate, the soup bubbles up for several minutes.

Directions:
Add the olive oil in a pan on medium heat. Add the butter and sauté the onion, celery, and garlic for a few minutes. Set the vegetables aside and add the tomato paste and sauté for 30 seconds (I use the type of tomato paste that comes in a tube, Cento tomato paste. It is much easier to use tomato paste from a tube when a small amount is needed compared to opening a whole can). Add the tomato and the liquid (I used whey). Cook 10-15 minutes until all the vegetables are cooked and soft. Using an immersion blender, make smooth soup. Season with salt and pepper.

(Optional) This process is to reduce the acidity. While it is simmering, add the sodium bicarbonate and mix (lots of bubbles come out, keep stirring for serval minutes until the bubbles subside.) I tasted the soup at this stage and it was very good without cream.

Since I was not planning to serve this immediately, I quickly chilled the soup by putting the pan in a large bowl with running water while stirring. Then I put it in sealable container in the refrigerator.

The next day, I served this for lunch. I warmed up the soup and added the cream. With an the addition of the cream, this became quite a luxurious soup.

Surf-and-turf Valentine’s Day Dinner ロブスターとステーキ（サーフアンドターフ）

We rarely have a surf-and-turf dinner but since it was Valentine’s  day, we decided to have a steak and lobster dinner. The filet mignon came from Omaha steak and we got frozen lobster tail from Whole Food.  I cooked both in sous vide. I also made “Mac-and-cheese”. The temperatures I used in the past for lobster tail and steak were slightly different but this time I used 135F for both so that I could sous vide both in the same setting which worked.  The steaks were cooked for 4 hours and the lobster 45 minutes. I timed it so they both came out around 7pm.

I seasoned the lobster tails with salt and tarragon (I only had dried) and vacuum packed with several pats of cold butter. After it was cooked I removed the lobster from the vacuum pack, and drained the liquid inside and added a squeeze of lemon juice to make a lobster-butter dipping sauce. It was perfectly cooked.

I thawed the previously frozen steak and patted it dry. I then further dried it on sheets of paper towel, uncovered for a few hours in the refrigerator.  I seasoned it with salt and pepper before vacuum packing it for sous vide. After it was cooked I removed the steak from the vacuum bag, and quickly seared both sides in a frying pan with melted butter. I set the steak aside and added the juice accumulated in the vacuum bag to the pan and scraped off the brown bits left from searing the steak. I added 2-3 tbs of red wine and reduce the mixture in half. I finished the pan sauce with pats of butter and seasoned with salt and pepper. The steak was nice medium rare.

I have made and  posted several variations of “Mac and cheese”. This time I went with a classic with Béchamel sauce but I also added finely chopped fresh shiitake mushroom which added nice flavors. The cheeses I used as per my wife’s selection were fresh goat, sharp cheddar and smoke Gouda. The seasonings were salt and freshly grated black pepper and nutmeg. We really liked this version.

We had this with one of our favorites; Caymus Napa valley Cabernet  Sauvignon 2020. We really enjoyed this special dinner and wine.

Crispy Roasted Porcelet Belly パリパリ皮のロースト(子)豚バラ

Some time ago, we bought a special pork belly called “Porcelet” from D’Artagnan. It is from a milk-fed piglet and arrived with the skin on. The quantity was quite large so we divided it into 3 pieces one of which we used right away and froze the other two. Since the pieces in the freezer generally will not improve the longer we keep them frozen, we decided to make something out of one of the pieces. We thawed a portion of about 2 lbs. After consulting many recipes on the Internet, I decided to use the recipe from “America’s test kitchen (ATK)” on YouTube. It is a modification of a Chinese dish called “脆皮燒肉”. Actually ATK has two versions of video posted; one by  “The Pangs”, a father and son (Kevin Pang) Chinese cook duo and the other by Dan Souza. After watching both (which are mostly the same recipe), I cooked this porcelet with crispy skin. I made two sauces; one by Dan Souza which is inspired by North Carolina BBQ sauce with mustard and vinegar and the other by the Pangs which is Hoisin sauce based. We had this with oven fried potato which my wife made (using white potato and a bicarb treatment but using olive oil instead of duck fat) served with ketchup (picture below). OMG! This is an excellent pork dish with very crispy skin, juicy and tender meat/fat.

Here is the appearance of the pork belly after it was finished. The skin is golden brown and has multiple bubbles and extremely crispy.

Ingredients (This made three large portions providing servings for both of us for several meals over several days):
2lb skin on pork belly (in our case, porcelet belly)
Salt (for salting the skin)
Vegetable oil (to add to the rendered pork fat to make it 1 cup of fat)

For dry rub
Brown sugar and salt (1:1) ratio, we used regular sugar with one tsp dark molasses and kosher salt (#2)
Chinese 5 spice powder, optional, but makes it closer to the authentic flavors).
We found this rub a bit too salty so we will change the ration when we make it again.

Sauces (the amounts are from the original recipe, I made a much smaller amount keeping the ratios of the ingredients the same)

For the Chinese sauce
1/2 cup Hoisin sauce
4 tbs rice vinegar
1 tsp grated ginger
2 tbs scallion, chopped

For the Mustard sauce
1 cup Dijon mustard

1/3 cup wine vinegar (I used rice vinegar)
1/4 cup brown sugar (I used dark buckwheat honey)
1 tbs Worcestershire sauce
Hot sauce (as much as you like, I used 1tsp Sriracha)

Directions:
Cut the pork belly into three equal portions (#1)
Cut the skin and underlying fat (but not the meat) every 1/2 inch interval (#1)
Put the dry rub (#2) on the meat side including the ends and sides but not on the skin (the sugar will make the skin burn while baking)
Salt the skin surface (about 1/2 tbs for each piece) (#3)
Refrigerate without covering for 12-24 hours  (To dry the skin surface) in a glass baking pan (liquid will come out while in the refrigerator)
Some juice accumulated in the bottom of the baking dish and the skin surface looks dry without residual salt visible
Place the pork in a baking pan with the metal rack
Bake at 250F for 2 and half to 3 hours (to the internal temperature of 195F, in my case the temp went over 200F) (#4)
Set the pork aside and pour out the rendered fat to the 1 cup measuring cup. Add more vegetable oil to make it 1 cup.
Pour the fat into a 12 inch frying pan and place the pork skin side down in the cold oil and then turn on the heat to medium (#5)
Fry for 5-8 minutes or until the skin is golden brown and develops multiple bubbles and crispy (#6)
Let the meat rest for 10 minutes before slicing using the slits on the skin as a guide.

This pork was fabulous; probably one of the best things I’ve ever eaten. The meat was tender and the skin was wonderfully crunchy. It had a delicate pork flavor. We tried both sauces but we probably like the hoisin-based sauce best with this wonderful pork. The mustard sauce is good but a bit too vinegary for our teste. In any case, this is an amazing dish and the skin was crispy beyond belief. We are glad we made this dish. Our only concern is that it tasted a bit too salty for us. I may reduce the salt and/or increased the drying time in the refrigerator.

Addendum:
For us, knowing how best to reheat the left-overs is often important (since this is something we often do.) Particularly for this dish when re-heating, we would like to have the skin crispy and the underlying meat juicy. So, I sliced two each for a small appetizer one evening. I wrapped the slices together, standing up and wrapped all sides and bottom with aluminum foil but exposed the top (skin). I placed this package skin side up in the toaster oven and toasted at 7 (darkest setting for toasting bread). This heating method worked very well. The skin was crispy and the meat/fat underneath is soft and juicy and nicely warmed up. The picture below shows how I served it with the two sauces; The dark one on the left is the hoisin-based and the one on the right is mustard and vinegar. We both agree that the hoisin-based sauce is much better. The next batch I may add Chinese 5 spice powder in the rub.