Scattered sushi ちらし寿司

Smoked salmon and salmon roe scattered sushi いくらとスモークサーモンちらし寿司

This is our variation on scattered sushi ちらし寿司. "Sushi" means "vinegared rice". So any dish which uses vinegared rice will fall into the category of "sushi". Scattered sushi is the easiest sushi to make and is a classic home style dish; made by adding any combination of toppings to a bed of sushi rice. Traditional styles use mostly simmered and seasoned vegetables. These could include, among other things, shiitake mushrooms, carrot, lotus root or "renkon", "kanpyo", thinly cut slightly sweet thin omlet ("kinshiran" 金糸卵, meaning golden thread egg), strips of "nori" sea weed, and pickled ginger root. You could add any kind of cooked or raw fish (sashimi), shrimp, uni (sea urchin), ikura (salmon roe) (if you add all kinds of raw fish, it is called "kaisen chirashi" 海鮮ちらし or "nama chirashi なまちらし).

In Hokkaido, the combination of sea urchin and salmon roe is very popular and called  "uni ikura donburi" うにいくらドンブリ.  To make this regional specialty, an obscenely large amount of uni and ikura are placed on a bed of sushi rice. My mother introduced my wife to this dish some years ago and it now happens to be my wife's favorite. She enjoyed a wonderful example of this dish in the port city of Otaru near Sapporo on our last visit to Japan. At home, we occasionally make our version of this dish but fresh uni is hard to come by most of the time. Salmon roe is easier to get since it freezes very well. So we make our variation using a combination of good quality cold-smoked salmon and salmon roe. Again, this dish would serve as the last rice dish of the meal in our home Izakaya.

1. Cooking sushi rice: Start with a good short grain Japanese rice. We use "Tamaki" rice from California which is "okabo" or non-paddy rice but it is not bad. You could get real "paddy" rice from California as well. Instead of using just plain water, the rice could be cooked with a small piece of kelp and small amount of sake added to the water. Make the rice with slightly less water than would be used to make regular rice. This is so that the rice will be slightly dryer than usual and will absorb enough sushi vinegar. We mostly use an electric rice cooker (my wife is actually in charge of cooking rice--having been coached in what constitutes good rice by my mother in the early days of our marriage). I acquired a special "Donabe" rice cooker recently and the "donabe" rice cooker does make slightly better rice.  Wash the rice and let it soak in the water for 30 minutes or more before cooking it. Then, let it stand for 15 minutes after it is finished cooking.

2. Preparing sushi rice: As you can see in this picture, I use a wooden tub (寿司桶) and paddle (へら) but, of course, a shallow bowl and spoon will also work. You could make your own sushi vinegar or use a commercial bottled one. You could get a more precise recipe for sushi vinegar and how to make sushi rice elsewhere. The amount of sugar and salt in sushi vinegar is a personal preference, some old traditional edomae 江戸前 (Tokyo style) sushi restaurants even omit the sugar. Most of the time, I am too lazy to make my own sushi vinegar so I use a commercial bottled variety. I microwave the sushi vinegar to make it warm before adding it to the rice. Sometimes, however, I even skip this step. The amount of sushi vinegar to rice is another question. I usually put as much as I can without making the rice too wet (warm sushi vinegar appears to be absorbed more). We like a rather strong vinegar taste in our sushi rice. Traditionally, while you are mixing the sushi rice, you fan the rice. My wife helps me by fanning the sushi rice using a Japanese "uchiwa" 団扇. The exact reasons for this process is not really clear but maybe it makes the additional moisture evaporate. The end result is that the rice grains are shinier than they would be otherwise. I cover the tub with wet tea towel and let it stand for few minutes before putting the dish together. My wife is more of a rice connoisseur than I am and she often complains about the poor quality of sushi rice at near-by sushi bars, which is unfortunately often the case.

3. To make the thin egg omelet ("Kinshiran" 金糸卵): For one large egg, I put 1-2 tsp of sugar and pinch of salt and mix. I often add a small amount (1 tbs) of "dashi" broth but this is optional. Use a Japanese style rectangular frying pan or use a 8 inch regular non-stick frying pan with a small amount of butter or oil. You need to make this omelet very thin. The secret is to pour the egg mixture after the pan is hot  (on medium flame) and once the bottom is set, to reduce flame very low and put the lid on. You do not want to brown it.  It may take more than 5-7 minutes before the egg is cooked. Take it out of the pan onto a cutting board. Cut into 4 elongated pieces, stack them and julienne thinly.

4. Put the sushi rice in the bottom of the bowl or plate and top it with bite sized pieces of smoked salmon, salmon roe, thinly sliced salted and vinegared cucumber (excess moisture squeezed out), "kinshiran" or golden egg threads, shredded "nori" seaweed, finely chopped perilla and/or scallion. You can make any variation as you like depending on the ingredients available.

Chilled Tofu 冷や奴

Chilled Tofu 冷や奴 (Mark's book p16)
Deep fried tofu pouch stuffed with Natto 油揚げの納豆はさみ

This is a very simple and also classic summertime dish in Izakaya. One of the problems with this dish is to get good quality fresh tofu, which is sometimes not so easy in Untied States. Although, packaged tofu like those from Nasoya is available in any grocery store, they are not really suited for this dish. When I lived in Japan, there were still stores selling tofu made fresh daily (this may reveal my age). Now even in Japan, these small individually owned artisanal tofu stores are extremely rare if any survive. Fortunately, there are some Japanese Tofu companies making good quality tofu in the US. The one I am using here today is from Kyo-zen-an  京禅庵 which is a Kyoto company making tofu and tofu-related products. As I understand, from their website, they have been making tofu in New Jersey from USDA certified organic American soy beans using an authentic traditional method of tofu making. The tofu is packaged and pasteurized. It lasts much longer than the old fashioned style block of tofu which was scooped from a large vat of cold water; the day it was made was the day it was consumed. I found that this brand is good enough for this dish. There are several other good ones but they are all only available in a Japanese grocery store. I used their silken tofu.

The toppings for this dish usually include chopped scallion, perilla, bonito flakes, and thin strips of dried "nori" sheet and grated ginger root. Pour soy sauce over before eating. I actually prefer to use "sashimi soy sauce" or "concentrated soup base for Japanese noodles"; both can be bought in a Japanese grocery store. Again, you must be a chopstick jedi to eat this without the help of a spoon.

Deep fried tofu pouch stuffed with Natto 油揚げの納豆はさみ

I made this dish closely following the classic recipe using a few modifications of my own. Mark's book has an interesting modern variation.  In his version the tofu pouch is stuffed with cheese rather than "natto" (p80), which I have not tried yet. Natto 納豆 or fermented soy beans is one of the Japanese foods difficult to like because of the smell and sticky texture. Every culture appears to have this type of fermented food. Very ripe and runny cheeses from France, Vegemite from Australia, Surströmming from Sweden and so on. Only people who grew up eating this type of food will like it or can eat it. My wife, who is not Japanese but who enjoys almost any Japanese delicacy including some very challenging ones such as a sea cucumber, would not eat "natto" for many years. She did not like it at all. Then, my mother told us some years ago that if you stir it more than 100 or 400 times (I am not sure how many times exactly), the smell will dissipate and becomes easier to eat (she saw this technique on one of the Japanese TV programs). So I tried this method and, now, my wife will eat natto especially when used in this dish.

Natto used to come frozen from Japan but now we see non-frozen natto. I am not sure if these are made here or still imported from Japan. The one I used appears to be made in Japan. If you read Japanese, you may want to check the blog/column in Nippon Keizai Shinbun web site...interesting discussion and information about natto and the regional differences in how natto is prepared. There are quite a few natto recipe sites (all in Japanese) and here is one example. Some of the recipes are quite outrageous! This year, while in Japan, we acquired a special stirrer designed for mixing natto and it is pictured here.

The two prongs are slightly different in length with their tips shaped like scoops and surface has many small round protrusions as seen here in the picture. This works much better than the usual bamboo chopsticks. This device aerates natto very well without much effort. Add mustard, chopped scallion, and the sauce that came with the package (or use your own mustard and sauce if you like). As a kid, I remember preparing natto with the addition of a bit of sugar. Apparently using sugar in natto is done in only certain parts of Japan. These dialects of food culture in Japan, specifically about natto preparation, has been extensively discussed in the blog/column I mentioned above.  Mix vigorously for few minutes. Meanwhile prepare the "abura-age"油揚げ or fried tofu pouch. We get a small "inari" 稲荷 version frozen.  (This is for making "inarizushi", seasoned tofu pouch stuffed with vinegared rice). Pour hot water over it in a colander. This will thaw the pouch and remove some excess oil. Press it between paper towels to remove excess water. Cut one end (leaving three edges intact) and carefully open the pouch. Spoon in the prepared natto. Do not over fill and pat it flat. Place it in a toaster oven and toast until both sides get brown and crispy. You could then just serve with bit of soy sauce. (You could do this dish using a frying pan with small amount of oil but a toaster oven works better. Be careful not to spill the natto inside the taster oven though, it will make a big mess.)  I took mine out of the toaster oven when it is 80% done.

On one side of the stuffed tofu pouch, spread a thin layer of the mixture of mayonnaise and citrus miso I made for the simmered daikon dish (in equal amounts) with chopped perilla mixed in.  Put the pouch back in the toaster oven until the surface browns (a few minutes). I am glad my wife likes to eat even this dish now.

Steamed Lemon Chicken 鶏のレモン蒸し

Steamed Lemon Chicken 鶏のレモン蒸し

I am not sure if this dish really belongs to Izakaya food but we often eat this dish over rice as the last item at our home Izakaya. The last dish you order in Izakaya is generally a starch, a rice or noodle dish and this dish could be that rice dish. It is very healthy, mild, refreshing, and comforting. The original recipe was from one of the Japanese cook books (Now, I do not remember which one this was). I have modified it substantially during the years. It is rather simple and you could prepare the dish one or two days ahead up to the point just before it is cooked and keep it in the refrigerator. Sake, lemon, and salt appear to preserve chicken meat but acid may turn the meat white after 2 days. Although, it is best when freshly made, this dish will re-heat very nicely in a microwave oven.

I use a skinless, boneless chicken breast. I cut the breast into bite size pieces cutting obliquely across the grain of the meat そぎぎり. (I remove the tenders and use then for another dish.) The thickness (about a quarter inch or less) and size (bite size) of the chicken should be uniform so that all pieces cook evenly. Cut fresh Shiitake mushrooms (after removing the stems) in a similar manner. One mushroom should be cut into two or three pieces but not too small. I like the size of mushroom rather large to be more substantial. Grate the lemon zest using a micro-grater (this is my preferred method) or use your knife if you so prefer but the zest should be very finely chopped. Remove the remaining skin and pith (white part of the skin, because it imparts a bitter taste) from the lemon and thinly slice the meat of the lemon into thin round slices. (for the amount in the above picture, I used two halves of a chicken breast and one lemon). I remove the seeds from the lemon before adding it to other ingredients. If you do not like to bite into lemon slices in the dish, you could add the juice of lemon instead but you need to use zest for a bright lemony taste without being too sour. The amount of chicken, lemon, mushroom are arbitrary and to your liking. You can also add finely chopped scallion or garlic chive (both optional). Put everything in a bowl, add sake, salt, black or white pepper, a dash of dark sesame oil, and sprinkle potato starch and mix well (again, I just mixed these up by eyeballing but the most crucial part is the ratio of starch and liquid...too little starch, the sauce produced after steaming is too runny and too much you will have a glue (I suppose this can be precisely measured and mixed in a measuring cup and then poured over to the chicken-shiitake mixture (I may try this method to make this dish more reproducible. Sorry but I am not a precise cook). I season lightly here since I usually add "Ponzu Shoyu" (recipe is in Mark's book p145 or use a commercial one in a bottle) just before serving. Mix well and place them in a serving bowl like one seen here.  The bowl must fit inside your steamer. I cook this in a high steam for 10 minutes and then mix. Continue steaming another 10 minutes or meat becomes opaque and the sauce is set in nice consistency. Just 5 minutes before finishing, I add any greens available. I used snow peas this time but I also use broccoli or green beans (Green beans takes a bit longer to cook. You can cook these separately for the better control of doneness). Serve over cooked rice. I use a little bit of "ponzu shoyu" or if it is sour enough just soy sauce on the top to add fresh taste but you might want to taste the dish before adding these additional seasonings. If you are the chopsticks Jedi, use chopsticks, otherwise a spoon (for Japanese guests) or fork (for Westerner guests) might be better.

Simmered Daikon with miso ふろふき大根

Simmered Daikon with citrus miso ふろふき大根柚子味噌かけ
Kelp condiment 昆布の佃煮

This is another classic Izakaya food especially in winter. Since it is getting cooler, I made this classic Daikon dish. (Mark's book has a similar dish with pork Miso sauce, p20). I made this with a more classic citrus flavored miso sauce. It is best to use ripe yellow "yuzu" citrus, but I used a combination of lemon and lime zest. The quality of daikon we can get here is not great. It tends to be more fibrous than good quality daikon in Japan.

Again, preparation for this dish requires some work. Peel the daikon and cut the peeled daikon into 1 inch or so thick rounds. Shave off or bevel the sharp edge of the round 面取り and make several shallow cross cuts 隠し包丁 on the side which will become the bottom when served. This is, I think, how I was taught by my mother and it appears to be authentic since similar steps are described in Mark's book. Simmer the daikon in water with a pinch of uncooked rice grains or in the turbid rinsing liquid 米のとぎ汁 from washed uncooked rice, for 10-20 minutes. (I am not sure what this step does but it certainly removes some of the smell, common in cruciferous vegetables such as daikon.) Discard the water and rinse the daikon in cold running water, add a square of dried kelp 昆布 in the bottom of the pan (wipe the surface of the dried kelp with a dump paper towel before using to remove surface dirt) and add fresh water to cover the daikon. Simmer until daikon is soft (probably at least another 1-2 hours). You may want to pull out the kelp after 30-40 minutes if you like the daikon to be very white otherwise, the kelp will slightly discolor the diakon as you can see in our photo. Meanwhile, make the miso sauce. In a small pan mix together 1 tbs of white miso, 2 tsp of sugar. Add mirin and dashi (2 tsp each) (I use the simmering liquid instead of dashi since it is now a kelp broth). I eyeball everything and taste and adjust accordingly rather than measure the ingredients. Put the pan on a low flame, stir and reduce to a saucy consistency. Let it cool down a bit (5 minutes) and add citrus zest (Here, I used 80% lime and 20% lemon since I did not have yellow "yuzu").

To plate, place the kelp square, put the diakon uncut side up on top of the kelp, top the daikon with the miso sauce. Serve while the daikon is hot. The daikon should be soft enough so that it can be cut using chopsticks (may require some chopstick skill).

The sake glass shown in the picture is part of a "husband and wife" めおと set. The "husband" glass is blue and "wife" glass is red. These are hand-cut crystal by Hoya. The chopstick pillow 箸置き is Hagi-ware 萩焼 which is shaped like a sand dab. We purchased this when we visited one of the numerous Hagi kilns in the city of Hagi. The chopsticks are, again, part of "husband and wife" set and, I believe,  are Wakasa-nuri  若狭塗り which were a gift.

Kelp condiment 昆布の佃煮

The kelp used to cook the daikon can be transformed into a condiment "tsukudani" 昆布の佃煮 which goes very well with sake or white rice. Julienne the left-over kelp, simmer with soy sauce and mirin and sake (the proportion is again up to you depending on your taste) until only small amount of liquid remains. Add shaved and dried bonito flakes 鰹節, stir until incorporated. Final product should not have any excess liquid. The above is the one I made after I finished making this diakon dish. This one is not as salty as some of commercial "tsukudani" and go well with Sake as is.

Crispy fried chicken wing with sesame 鶏手羽の唐揚げ

Crispy fried chicken wing with sesame 鶏手羽の唐揚げ
Broccoli with sesame dressing ブロッコリのごま和え

This is a Japanese version of an America classic "Buffalo wings" (sort of), although this is not hot at all. This is also a classic Izakaya or bar food. This recipe is originally from one of the Japanese cook books I have (すぐ作れる酒の肴とおつまみ p40、講談社). This one requires some preparation (which appears to happen often in Japanese cooking). Cut off wing tips and discard. Separate wing from drumett and cut slits in both pieces to ensure even cooking. The next is an interesting and important step (this step is the same as for the chicken skin yakitori preparation). Prepare boiling water with some sake and cook the wings for 10-15 minutes in low medium heat. Skim any scum that floats to the surface. Take the wings out and place on paper towels and let cool until you can handle them by hand. Meanwhile, prepare the batter. Mix equal amounts of potato starch 片栗粉 and bread flour 強力粉 (we are aiming for crunch but you can just use AP flour). Add sake and/or water and soy sauce (to taste) to make a batter with the consistency of a pancake batter (it needs to be a bit thick to cling to the wings. The day I made this batch, my batter was too thin). Coat and marinate the above chicken wings in the batter for 5-10 minutes. Coat each pieces with white or black sesame seeds (here I used white sesame for the wings and black sesame for the drumetts). Deep fry to crisp the skin. The chicken is already cooked so use a bit higher temperature and fry until the skin gets crispy. You need not to worry about cooking it through. Although I have not done so, I suppose you can do the boiling step ahead of time and fry them just before serving. Since it is already seasoned, no need for a dipping sauce. The result, crunchy outside and juicy inside.

Broccoli with sesame dressing ブロッコリのごま和え

To accompany this dish, I made a very simple broccoli dish in the category of "goma-a-e" ごま和え using sesame paste as a main ingredient of the dressing. Blanch broccoli floweretts in salted water and shock them in ice cold water to stop cooking at your desired doneness (we like it bit crunchy) and pat dry using paper towels. In a small bowl or, in my case, a small "suribachi", add Japanese creamed sesame paste 練りごま (if this is not available use tahini), sugar, soy sauce and a small amount of rice vinegar (this will lighten the color of dressing as well as add some subtle sourness) until the dressing reaches desired consistency (if vegetables are watery make it bit thick). Dress the broccoli and place additional dressing and sesame seeds on the top. "Goma-a-e" is classically done with green beans. Mark's book has a more sophisticated version of this with green beans and fava beans (Mark's book p36). I made the recipe in his book. It does add more dimension especially by soaking green beans in "happo-dashi" 八方だし. Next time I make the recipe I will remember to take a picture.

Grilled Chicken Thigh with salt 鶏の塩焼き

Grilled Chicken Thigh with Salt 鶏の塩焼き

Vinegared cucumber salad キュウリの酢の物

When it is too much to set up a yakitori grill outside, the next best thing is to make this dish. Since skin is an important element of this dish, you probably have to get bone-in thigh and bone it yourself. Remove excess fat and butterfly the thickest part to make it even in thickness. Simply salt both sides (may not be good for you but you need to salt it quite heavily to taste good). For a grill, I use a very small electric indoor grill (George Forman's brand) but the grill needs to get rather hot. If you use a grill which can cook both sides at once, I put skin side up to make skin crispy. You can certainly make this with a frying pan or a grill pan. In that case, you put skin side down first and weight it down by a panini press or similar heavy item. You need to remove excess fat using paper towel while cooking to make the skin brown and crispy then turn over to complete cooking (do not cover). The result is very crispy skin and juicy thigh meat. Cut it up into bite size pieces, squeeze lemon and enjoy

I served this with a cold sake and a simple cucumber salad or "sunomono" 酢の物 with finely テ貝の薫製 from Hokkaido and topped with salmon roe いくら. Since it was a week night, I cheated and just used bottled Sushi vinegar (good quality one like "Mitsukan" or "Mizkan"ミツカン brand and one which uses real rice vinegar, not distilled white vinegar). After thinly slicing cucumbers, salt them lightly, mix and leave them for 5 minutes before squeezing out excess water. Mix with scallops and dress. Top with salmon roe.

crumbled semi-dry and smoked scallops ホタ

The sake glass is made by a local artisan in Asakusa, Tokyo, "Hashi-oki" 箸置き or "chop stick pillow" is also hand-made by Kitaichi glass, in Otaru, Hokkaido, and the cold sake is Yaegaki "mu" 八重垣 ”無” Junmai Daiginjo 純米大吟醸. Not bad for a week night!

Tuna "Maguro" 鮪 Part 2

Tuna Sashimi 鮪刺身、中トロ

This is "chutoro" 中トロ we got from a local Japanese grocery store (not from Catalina Offshore Products which I mentioned previously). It looks OK in the picture but the freshness was just marginal (it is usually better than this). Our grocery store may have gotten a fresh shipment from New York on Thursday (we bought this on Sunday). In Japan, we could get much higher quality sashimi from the gourmet food floors (usually basement floors) of department stores. In any case, even at home, we often start with a bit of sashimi, before proceeding to other Izakaya food. Although, my knife skills are not even close to the level of a professional chef, I try to do "katsura-muki" かつらむき to make daikon garnish "tsuma" 刺身のつま and to do some decorative cuts on a cucumber (again, American mini-cucues). Please click and see this Youtube episode. You will be amazed at the true skill of a professional chef. The cucumber "cup" is filled with salmon roe or "ikura" いくら. Although, for sashimi, the quality of tuna is by far the most important, other condiments also play significant roles such as wasabi and soy sauce.

A few words about "wasabi" 山葵. Real wasabi comes from the root of the wasabi plant (Wasabi Rhizomes). If you have not ever tasted the real stuff, it may be worth it to try at least once. It tastes quite different from fake wasabis made mostly from horseradish, starch, and green dye. You can buy an American grown real wasabi root from the company called "Real Wasabi". It is expensive, does not last that long and needs a special grater (the traditional one is made of shark skin). I tried it once from this company. It was really good but, unless you are having a big sushi and sashimi party, it may be difficult to justify the purchase. Some of wasabi pastes in a tube can be quite good using a certain amount of real wasabi but you can also buy a real wasabi powder from this company.

Soy sauce 醤油 is also important. Many of my American colleagues have told me they think soy sauce will last for a long time (basically forever) but it will get oxidized fairly quickly once it is opened. Oxidized soy sauce tastes quite unpleasant (to me, at least). You could make a special soy sauce for sashimi (dried bonito flakes and mirin are needed) but you could also buy special soy sauce for sashimi in a bottle.

Tuna in grated mountain yam "Yamakake" 鮪のやまかけ

This is the dish I mentioned in the previous posting about low-quality tuna. You could make this with good quality tuna and of course, it would taste better. You can use cubes of tuna as is or, especially if the tuna is not good quality, you can marinate it. My marinade consists of equal parts mirin and soy sauce. I leave the tuna in the marinade for as short as 10 minutes or as long as overnight (overnight marination will produce a soft and slightly slimy texture which some like and some don't).

The name of this dish is-- "yama-kake", "yama" comes from the word "yama-imo" which means mountain potato and "kake" which means to pour over. So the literal translation is "poured over mountain potato".  I grate the "mountain" yam or "yama-imo" 山芋 after peeling the skin. In the United States, I can only get a domesticated version of yama-imo called "naga-imo" or long potato 長芋.  A Japanese style grater (one with multiple holes allowing the grated yam to drop into the lower container) or a Japanese mortar "suribachi" works best. I also dissolve wasabi paste in soy sauce and mix it into the grated potato.  The more traditional way of doing this would be to put a dab of wasabi on the side of the dish letting the diners mix it in with the soy sauce. I like my method better because with the traditional way, the wasabi paste often does not get evenly distributed and the person eating it can get a real jolt of concentrated wasabi.

Add the tuna cubes to the grated mixture and garnish with a large amount of "nori" seaweed. The slimy consistency of the grated yam may not agree with many Westerners but this is certainly my wife's favorites.