Kitsune Udon and Inari-sushi 狐うどんといなり寿司

When our refrigerator went kaput, some of the Japanese frozen items thawed almost completely. One of them was "Abura-age" 油揚げ or deep fried tofu pouches. These were rectanglar-shaped full sized ones called "Ganko-oyaji-no-abura-age" がんこおやじの油揚げ (meaning "stubborn old man's abura-age*"). I decided the best way to save them was to cook them in soy sauce and sugar or/or mirin which is called "Ama-Kara" 甘辛 meaning "sweet and salty". Once cooked, they would last longer and also could also be used to make "Inari-sushi" 稲荷寿司 (right below)  and "Kitsune udon" 狐うどん (left below) which I did a week or so later and served as a lunch one weekend. I served Inari-sushi (or more accurately, Inari-zushi) with cucumber "asazuke" 浅漬け and sweet vinegar-dressed ginger (store-bought).

*This is a Japanese way of saying that this product was made with a stubborn determination of an old man who upholds a tradition of making the best product without any compromises.

Classically, Kitsune Udon is simply topped with seasoned abura-age and chopped scallion (this is a famous dish in Osaka 大阪 and they typically used the green part of the scallion as opposed to Tokyoites who uses only the white part. Since I made home pasteurized eggs in that morning, I added a poached egg as well. That makes this as "Kitsune Tsukimi udon" キツネ月見うどん. "Tsukimi" 月見 means "moon gazing" and the egg yolk is equated with the moon.

Cooking and seasoning Abrura-age:
2 rectangular abura-age, thawed, intentionally (or otherwise), if frozen, cut in half (square).
Place the abura-age in a colander and pour boiling water over it to remove any excess oil (this process is called "abura-nuki" 油抜き).
Place four squares in a single layer in a pan and add the seasoning (Japanese broth 100ml, mirin 20ml, and 20ml, add sugar if you like it sweet).
Place a "otoshi-buta" on top and simmer for 15-20 minutes until only a small amount of seasoning liquid remains on the bottom. Then let it cool.

I did this some days prior to using them and kept them in a sealed container in the "back-up/emergency" fridge.

Making "Kitsune udon"
Soup: Heat Japanese broth made from a dashi pouch (kelp and bonito), seasoned with sake, mirin and light colored soy sauce. I seasoned  it lightly and added the seasoned abura-age pouch to warm. The seasoning from the pouches leak out into the soup and when I tasted it the soup was just right.

Udon noodle:
I had cooked dried thin udon noodle. I warmed them up in boiling water for 30 seconds, drained and put it into bowls.

I poured in the warm soup, topped it with the seasoned abura-age, poached egg and thinly sliced scallion.

Assembling Inari-zushi (four square pouches):

Filling the pouches with cooked rice: the simplest would be sushi rice, which is what I basically used,  but the rice can be mixed with other ingredients such as seasoned gourd peel or "kanpyo" カンピョウ and shiitake mushsooms 椎茸. The variations are endless. I used frozen white rice (this happened to be rather expensive Japanese grown "Koshihikari" コシヒカリ rice). I microwaved it to warm it up and dressed it with sushi vinegar. I did not mention it earlier but among the thawing victims of the refrigerator's demise were two small packages of small whitebait fish called "shirasu" しらす. (At the same time I rescued the abura-age I braised these fish in mirin, sake and  soy sauce until almost dry and placed them in a small sealed container in the "emergency" fridge.) I mixed this seasoned "shirasu" into the sushi rice mixture. I prepared the pouches to be filled with the rice by pressing the abura-age pouches between two identical plates to remove any excess liquid. I then stuffed them with the rice mixture. Since the seasoning of the pouches and "shirasu" were essentially similar, this combination worked very well.

I cut the stuffed pouches in half to serve. Here you can see small fishy mixed into the rice.

For impromptu lunch with "Inari" theme**, this was quite good.

** Digression alert!:
"Inari" 稲荷 is a Japanese deity (or one of many Japanese gods) who promotes industrial and agricultural prosperity. There are some 30,000 Inari shrines that exist throughout Japan. These Inari shrines are guarded by statues of foxes (wearing red bibs for some reason). Although the fox is often confused to be the God, it is not. It is simply the Inari god's messenger. In addition, these foxes are said to be very fond of "abura-age". So, any dish made with abura-age is called "Inari" or "Kitsune (fox)".

This picture was taken by my wife when we were traveling in Kyoto 京都 and visiting  "Fushimi Inari Taisha" 伏見稲荷大社 in 2015. This is famous for numerous red torii gates 赤鳥居. This is the main or "parent" Inari shrine among the many in Japan.

When we visited there, it was very crowded. Later, we learned that visiting there at night may be less crowded.

Tofu pouch gyouza 焼き油揚げ餃子

I am always looking out for interesting drinking snack recipes. When I saw the gyoza in deep fried tofu pouch ( or "abura-age" 油揚げ), I had to try it. I served this with a garnish of chiffonade of perilla leaves and myouga 茗荷. As a side, I also served beer-picked daikon and carrot and  Japanese-style sweet vinegar cucumber pickles.



The below shows the gyoza stuffing better.



Gyoza stuffing: The recipe I saw used onion, garlic chive, and fermented squid and guts (or "Shiokara" 塩辛) but I stuck to my original gyouza stuffing of ground pork, finely chopped cabbage and scallion seasoned with salt pepper, soy sauce and sesame oil.

Tofu pouch: I used small rectangular tofu pouch called "sushi age" which is meant to be used to make "Inari sushi いなり寿司".  This is much smaller than regular abura-age. I used frozen ones I had in my freezer. I thawed it at the room temperature for 30 minutes and then poured hot water over them in a colander to completely thaw and remove excess oil ("abura nuki" 油抜き). I pressed them between the paper towels to remove any excess water. Using a rolling pin, I went back and forth over the tofu pouch which helped separate the two layers. I opened the abura-age from the shorter end and using my fingers separated the two layers to make a pouch.

Assembly: I put in the gyouza stuffing in the pouch and flattened it to make sure the stuffing is evenly distributed.

Cooking: I suppose I could have cooked these in a toaster oven but I cooked then on a dry non-stick frying pan. Turning several times on low flame, I cooked them until the surface was brown and the meat stuffing completely cooked.



I cut them diagonally and served it with chiffonade of perilla and myouga. I poured on a small amount of noodle dipping sauce (from a bottle).

We were not impressed with this dish. The tofu pouch was not crispy enough and we much prefer the regular gyouza skin. Maybe, cooking this in a toaster oven could have been better. At least, I got one post from this dish.

P.S. Few days later, we heated the leftover tofu pouch gyoza in the toaster oven. We placed them on a rack over a small cookie sheet and warmed them up in the 350F preheated oven for 5-6 minutes. Then, switched to the broil mode, turning once, until both sides browned(1 minute each, be careful of over broiling and causing them to smoke). The result was much better. The abura-age skin got very crispy. In addition, I made a dipping sauce (equal mixture of soy sauce and rice vinegar, Japanese red pepper powder, sesame oil, and finely chopped scallion). This rather assertive dipping sauce made this dish even better. So next time we make this, I will bake it rather than pan-fry.

Grilled atsuage "fried tofu" 焼き厚揚げ

There are two kinds of fried tofu: "Abura-age" 油揚げ, literally means "fried in oil" and "Atsu-age"  厚揚げ, fried thick tofu. The difference between the two is that "abra-age" is a thin tofu piece  completely cooked with no raw tofu left in the center. It can be opened into a pouch which can be stuffed with other ingredients. "Atsu-age" or sometimes called "Nama-age" 生揚げ is a much thicker tofu piece and the center is still uncooked tofu. I usually do not buy this since the ones available are very poor quality since the tofu itself is rather poor quality.  This time, however, I found a Japanese brand atsu-age in our Japanese grocery store and bought it. I thought I never posted "atsu-age" and started writing this post but when I searched for "abura-age" in my blog, I realized that I did blog "atsu-age" 6 years ago. So, this is a bit of a repeat. This one comes from "Soumo-ya" 相模屋 in Maebashi, Gunnma prefecture 前橋市群馬県. This one is made from "Kinugoshi" 絹ごし or silken tofu.

The package contained two squares as seen  below. I toasted this in our toaster oven for 5 minutes on each sides  (I placed in metal grate on aluminum foil lined metal tray).

When you cut it, the surface is fried and brown but the center is still uncooked.

I garnished it with finely sliced scallion and ginger soy sauce.

I also added blanched rapini buds with sesame soy sauce ごま醤油.

Especially since I have not had this for some time, this tasted really good. The surface is nicly crunchy after tasting and the center is hot and silky soft. Hope our grocery store will regularly carry this.

Sushi in deep fried tofu pouch いなり寿司

When I made chirashi-zushi ちらし寿司, we had leftovers even after I packed lunch boxes for the next day. I made this quick inarizushi いなり寿司 on a subsequent weekday night. This is another type of sushi in which shushi rice is stuffed into deep fried tofu pouchs or abura-age  油揚げ. I posted why dishes using deep fried tofu or abura-age is called "Inari" as in this dish "inari-zushi" or "kitsune" as in "kitsune-soba" きつねそば before. To briefly reiterate, it was said that messengers of the Diety enshrined in Inari-jinja 稲荷神社 are a pair of foxes or kitstune 狐 and somehow it was believed that deep fried tofu was their favorite food.

In any case, I defrosted 4 small rectangular abura-age called "Inari-age" 稲荷揚げ by pouring hot water over them in a colander. This will defrosts them as well as washes away some of the oiliness which is called "abura-nuki" 油抜き. I pressed the pieces between the paper towels to remove the moisture. 

I placed these in a small sauce pan and added water (100ml), mirin (2 tbs) and soy sauce (1 tbs) and simmered for 10-15 minutes turning the inari-age several times until the seasoning liquid was almost all gone. I let it cool down and again pressed the pieces between paper towels to remove the excess moisture. I then cut one end off the pouch and opened it up. Just for decorative purposes, I turned one of the halves in-side-out (left one in the image below)

You could stuff the pouch with plain sushi rice. This time,  I had left over flavored sushi, I microwave it and added a bit more sushi vinegar and let it cool down to room temperature and stuffed the seasoned tofu pouches. You could buy pre-seasoned tofu pouches in a Japanese grocery store (I think they are frozen) but I never used them myself. I served it with my cucumber, diakon and carrot asazuke 浅漬け and "gari" ginger.

The above picture is just to show this was stuffed with seasoned chirashizushi with hijiki, shiitake mushroom, gobou and carrot. Although we sometimes bought inarizushi from the Japanese grocery store, I seldom made it. 

My wife thouhgt this was great. Stuffing it with seasoned chirashizushi made this dish much more savory than the simple white sushi rice version. She even thought the two tasted different but, as I mentioned, the only difference was that one pouch had been turned inside out. Even after making the inarizushi, we still had some flavored sushi rice left.

Garlic chive and grilled abura-age in sesame dressing ニラと焼き油揚げの胡麻和え

This is another type of Otoshi お通し small dish. I bought chives in a small plastic container, along with a few other items at our grocery. The cashier was being a bit careless and the container opened while she was ringing up. Chives spilled out all over everything. So, with restless people waiting in the line behind me, I had to rush back to the produce department and grab another package. It turns out I grabbed the wrong thing. I thought I had chives but when I got home I discovered I had "garlic chive" ニラ. We have garlic chives growing in our herb garden but it tends to be tough so, even though it is prolific, we don't use it much. These garlic chives were very tender and flavorful. Thus, this dish.

I blanched the garlic chives for 30 seconds, then shocked them in ice cold water ringing out the excess moisture. I cut them into 1 inch lengths. Meanwhile, I grilled or toasted the abura-age 油揚げ or deep fried tofu pouch (I used a toaster oven) for 3-4 minutes until it becomes very crispy and slightly browned. I cut it into thin strips. The dressing is made simply; sesame (1 tbs) dry roasted in a frying pan for 2-3 minutes then ground coarsely in a suribachi Japanese mortar すり鉢. I added a small amount of sugar (1/2 tsp) and soy sauce (2-3 tsp) and a dash of dark sesame oil. I dressed the abura-age and garlic chive mixture and served. You have to enjoy this dish while the abura-age is still hot and crispy. A perfect starter dish for sake.

Soba noodle in hot broth かけそば

This is again is a dish with which to finish your home Izakaya feast. This is a very simple soba noodle dish. We had this when I made "age-dashi tofu". This was a perfect dish to make since I wanted to finish the broth I made for the tofu dish. I simply dilute it further to the strength appropriate for this soba dish. Soba そば 蕎麦 is very popular even here in the U.S. and it is easy to get high-quality dried noodles. Of course you can make the noodles yourself. We have a soba cook book which describes how to make soba from buckwheat flour. I tried it once but, it is too difficult to make for an amateur like me and the dried variety is just fine. 

There are two major ways to serve Soba; cold soba with a dipping sauce or "mori soba" もりそば and warm soba in broth or "kake soba" かけそば. There are many variations of both types of soba preparation depending on the condiments or toppings. For example, if you add tempura (usually shrimp), it is "tempura soba", if you add an egg  it is "Tsukimi soba" 月見そば meaning moon-gazing soba since the egg yolk looks like a full moon. If you add seasoned fried tofu pouch (abura-age), then it is called "fox" soba きつねそば. You may ask why this is called "fox" soba. "Inari" shrine 稲荷神社, one of the many Japanese shrines, considers the white fox as a messenger of the deity or god it enshrines. Later, probably through misunderstanding, people started believing that the fox was the deity itself. It is also believed that the fox deity loves "abura-age" or deep fried tofu pouch. Thus, any dish which includes "abura-age" has "kitusne (fox)" or "inari" somewhere in it's name. Another common soba topping is "tenkasu" 天かす or small bits of cooked tempura batter that you scoop up while you are making tempura (this can be stored frozen for later use), then, it is called "tanuki" soba たぬきそば. There is a play on words here. "Tanuki" is a Japanese badger or more like a raccoon which is always compared to "kitsune" or fox since both animals are believed to use "magic" (mostly transmogrification) to mislead humans in Japanese folklore. It is said that "kitsune" is always very cunning and successful in her magic but "tanuki" is always comical and failing in his magic. For the name of the noodle dish, "ta-nuki" also means just temprura batter without other ingredients of tempura  - "ta" means "other" and "nuki" means "missing" or "without".

We occasionally go to a small but elegant Japanese restaurant called "Makoto"  in Washington DC, where they serves an excellent course menu おまかせ in the "kaiseki" style 懐石 or 会席. After 7-8 small exquisite dishes, the last dish they offer is soba in warm broth. There are some choices of toppings and we always go for "sansai" 山菜 or mountain vegetables. The soba dish I made here is a simplified version of this. I just put sliced fresh shiitake mushrooms in the broth and cooked it for a few minutes. I poured the hot broth over cooked soba noodles in a bowl and finished with chopped scallion and nori. If you like, sprinkle on the Japanese 7 flavored red pepper "sichimi tougarashi"  七味唐辛子.

“Atsu-age” Fried-tofu with Mapo Eggplant 厚揚げの麻婆茄子かけ

“Atsu-age” 厚揚げ or “Nama-age” 生揚げ is fried tofu with a surface like “Abura-age” but the inside remains as soft tofu. We used be able to get good quality atsu-age from our japanese grocery store. I have posted quite a few dishes I made with this but the best dish, as far as we are concerned, and particularly if the quality of the atsu-age is good is simply grilled (in the toaster oven) served with soy sauce and chopped scallion. But, for some reason, the ones we have gotten recently are not really good.  This was the case with the one I got the other day. I decided to make something different using this not-really-good atsu-age. Since I had leftover mapo eggplant, I decided to use it as a topping for the atsu-age.

Because of the spicy mapo eggplant sauce, the atsu-age was more palatable but still not great.

I first cut the atsu-age into cubes and heated it up in the toaster oven on high toast mode.

This ws not bad and made a nice appetizer but I hope at some point we can get better quality atsu-age.

“Atsuage” tofu 厚揚げ

"Atsu-age" 厚揚げ or "Nama-age" 生揚げ is deep fried thick ("atsu" 厚 means "thick") tofu. But this is not like "Abura-age" 油揚げ in which only the surface is fried, because the center portion of this tofu retains the look and texture of the original “raw” tofu or "nama" 生. In the case of ”abra-age", thin slices of tofu are deep fried until completely cooked. Although frozen abra-age was readily available at the Japanese grocery store in our neighborhood, atsu-age is more difficult to come by since it cannot be frozen. (When frozen, the raw tofu portion totally changes its consistency). I have not seen atsu-age in our grocery store before. We used to have grilled atsu-age occasionally at Tako Grill.  Recently I saw a package (from Japan) in the refrigerator case and bought it.

The way I served it is in the classic Izakaya-style. Since we had sashimi items including "Ootoro" from "Fish-for -Sushi" we splurged and opened the last bottle of "14th generation sake"  (十四代）which we have had in our refrigerator for more than 3 years.



Atsu-age could be a part of "nimono" 煮物 or simmered dish, or served grilled or heated up in a frying pan. At Izakaya, it is usually simply grilled. I just heated it up in a frying pan with a bit of vegetable oil for a few minutes on each side until the skin got crispy and the center was warm. I cut it into 2 blocks and topped it with graded daikon and thinly sliced scallion (below).



In this angle, you can see that the center is "raw" tofu.



Add just a little bit of soy sauce and we are ready.



As you can easily imagine, the quality of atsu-age really determines how good this dish is. This was fresh and very good. If this is not fresh, the only way you could possibly choke it down is simmered in broth with other items. I am glad I chose this simple way of serving. "Juyondai" sake was as good as when I first tasted it even after 3 years probably because it was kept under refrigeration all that time.

Deep fried tofu pouch stuffed with chicken and bean sprouts 鶏笹身ともやしの巾着

We were having some very cold and windy days with a bit of snow (just a dusting with some wind-blown snow accumulation). We also had two small abura-age 油揚げ or deep fried tofu pouches left after making inarisuzhi いなり寿司. I decide to make a simplified version of Japanese winter stew or oden おでん. Please see more information in my previosu post for oden. Instead of the usual mochi-kin 餅巾 or mochi rice case in abura-age, I thought I would make pouches stuffed with pork, onion and bean sprouts. Especially since I had leftover blanched bean sprouts from making cellophane noodle salad. Whenever you stuff the abura-age pouch, the dish is caled "kinchaku" 巾着 which is the name for a traditional Japanese pouch. After I started the preparation, I realized I did not have any pork but I had two bone-in skin-on split chicken breasts which needed to be dispatched soon--before they went bad. I removed the breasts and two tenderloins. I made the breasts into microwave "sakamushi" 酒蒸し chicken. I made the stuffing for the tofu pouches from the chicken tenderloins adding shiitake and bean sprouts. The remaining breast bones were used to make the broth for the oden.

Here is a serving of oden; the stuffed pouch is in the foreground accompanied by diakon, potato, carrot, quail eggs, freeze-dried tofu or shimi-dufu, chikuwa and hanpenn. I admit this does not look particularly photogenic.

Revealing the content of the pouch.

Broth: I took a shortcut and used a dashi pack with dried fish, bonito flakes, kelp. I also added the bones from the chicken breasts as well (which was not the usual way of making broth for oden). In a pot, I added about 4 cups of water and a dashi pack. After simmering for 5 minutes, I added the chicken bones and simmered for another 20-30 minutes. I skimmed off any scum that appeared on the surface from the chicken bones. After I removed the bones and dashi pack, I strained the broth. I returned the broth to a donabe earthenware pot. I seasoned it with sake (3 tbp), mirin (3 tbs), soy sauce (2 tbs) and usukuchi 薄口 or light colored soy sauce (2 tbs). Later I adjusted the seasoning by adding a bit more light colored soy sauce.

Stuffed "kinchaku" pouch: The amounts of the ingredients are not accurate since I did not measure. I made just enough to stuff the two rectangular pouches seen below. I sautéed strips of chicken tenderloin (two), fresh mushrooms (5 small, cut into thin strips), blanched bean sprouts (one handful, probably 1/2 cup) in olive oil with a dash of sesame oil. I also added finely chopped ginger (1/8 tsp) and Japanese red pepper flakes. After few minutes of sautéing, I seasoned it with sake (2 tbs) and soy sauce (1 tbs). I braised it until the liquid was also most all gone.

After the stuffing cooled enough to handle, I stuffed the pouches and closed them with a tooth pick (left on the image above). I simmered them in the oden broth with the other items (probably for about one hour. The broth should not boil or even simmer during this process).

Despite the change of plan the midway through, this was not too bad. Although I probably prefer my original intent of bean sprouts, onion, and ground pork, this kinchaku was not bad at all.

Braised daikon green with deep fried tofu 大根葉と油揚げの金平

Last time I bought daikon 大根 at the Japanese grocery store, it had a very small amount of green on the top. Although I have posted a few similar dishes using daikon greens, this is another iteration. Since Catalina had fresh Bluefin tuna (we got the chutoro and toro portion), we were having a sashimi feast. For that, I made the usual daikon garnish. When you do "katsura-muki" 桂剥き or cutting thin sheet of daikon, the center portion of the daikon cannot be cut and becomes a leftover. So I used this leftover daikon as well.

In the picture below on the left is a small portion of the daikon green which I removed. I washed and then finely chopped it. I also sliced and julienned daikon, carrot (one small, I cut it in larger match sticks instead of regular julienne to give a crunchy texture) and julienned abura-age 油揚げ or deep fried tofu pouch (one small "inari" 稲荷 kind, as usual, I poured hot water over it to defrost as well as to remove any excess oil). These ingredients are lined up on the picture below on the right.

I put peanut oil (1 tbs) and dark sesame oil (1 tsp) in a frying pan on medium flame. I first sautéed the daikon green, daikon and carrot. I sprinkled Japanese one flavor red pepper flakes or "Ichimi tougarashi" 一味唐辛子 to taste. After a minute of so when the vegetables were coated with oil and slightly softened, I added the abura-age. I then seasoned with mirin (3 tbs) and soy sauce (3 tbs) and braised it until only a very small amount of liquid remained.

The seasoning was a bit on the strong side but would have been perfect as a rice condiment. But for a drinking snack, you may want to replace half of the mirin with water or sake and also reduce the soy sauce. The daikon green and carrot remained a bit crispy. In contrast, the daikon and abura-age were soft and absorbed the seasoning, providing an interesting texture contrast.

We had this as a small drinking snack with cold sake. Since we had this cold, the seasoning was just fine and not too strong.

Seared Tuna salad 炙り鮪のぬたサラダ

Again, this is a continuation of how to enjoy tuna sashimi in different ways.  Mark's book (p80) has a similar more traditional recipe, "Tuna 'Nuta' with Miso Mustard dressing". I make this dish slightly differently. "Nuta" ぬた is a traditional Japanese dish in which raw fish, sea weed, and "wakegi" わけぎ (which is very similar or identical to scallions -green or spring onions- we get in the U.S.)  are dressed in sweet miso mustard sauce "karashi sumiso" からし酢みそ. I made some modifications to this traditional recipe and made it into a salad. I used the "tataki" technique for tuna and cooked the scallions over direct gas flame. This way, the tuna attains a nice firm texture and the scallions become very sweet. You could just boil the scallions as suggested in Mark's book. For added texture, I used grilled "abura-age" 油揚げ or deep fried tofu pouch and everything was set on the top of dressed greens (I used baby arugula here but any leafy greens will do). Of course, if you omit the greens, that will also be just fine with sake.

I used 1/3 "saku" 冊 or block of tuna sashimi (previously frozen) for two servings. After thawing, remove any moisture from the surface and salt both sides. To sear the surface, you could use a frying pan with a bit of oil but I used the traditional Japanese method of a direct gas fire (or charcoal fire). I put two metal skewer, fanned out, through the tuna and held it over the flames until all surfaces were white with small light brown patches but the center was still raw. I plunged the tuna into ice water to cool. I then dried with paper towels and cut into bite size pieces.

I selected thick scallions (3-4) rather than thin ones. Holding the green part, I charred the white part of the scallion over the direct flame until the outer skin blackened. I set them aside until they were cool enough to handle (1-2 minutes). I then removed the root end and outer most blackened layer and cut the white and contiguous green parts into 1/2 inch long segments.

I put one abura-age in a toaster oven and toasted it like I would a slice of bread until surface was brown and crispy (I could have used direct flames as well). I cut it into 1/3 inch strips.

To make "nuta" or "sumiso" sauce (I posted this before); this time I used regular white miso (2 tbs), sugar (2 tbs) and mixed in enough rice vinegar to make a saucy consistency. If the sauce is vinegary enough but still too thick, you could add a bit of 'dashi" or sake. I also added 1/3 tsp of prepared hot Japanese mustard. In Mark's book, this sauce was made with the addition of mirin without sugar (mirin is sweet) and less vinegar which makes the sauce less vinegary but I like a more assertive vinegary taste. Dress all the above ingredients except for the greens with this sauce.

For the baby arugula, I simply dressed with a splash of rice vinegar and good quality olive oil, salt and black pepper.

Just place the greens on the bottom of the plate and make a mound of "nuta" on the top. My wife usually does not like scallions in big pieces but this time because of the method of cooking them they were very soft and sweet and she liked it. Abura-age added a nice crunch and everything came together with the smooth miso sauce. Arugula has nice peppery taste which also added to the overall flavor.

Natto stuffed Tofu pouch納豆詰め油揚焼

Initially, I thought I did not post this item.  Since a search of my blog did not yield anything. But it turns out I posted this item many years ago (2009)  It was one dish among several I served that time.  Grilled deep fried tofu pouch or "Yaki abura-age" 焼き油揚 is a rather common Japanese appetizer or breakfast item. It can be eaten with soy sauce or stuffed with various items, melting cheese being one of the most common items（Kitusne Raclett)). I thawed a small package of natto without thinking about how I would serve it and came up with this rather easy solution.

Natto is a difficult food item for Westerners to approach and even some Japanese shy away from it. It took some time and effort before my wife could enjoy (tolerate?) natto. The secret is to mix it well (in my case, using a special Natto mixing tool). Mixing it well with air, appears to reduce the smell and stickiness.

After cooking, I cut it diagonally showing natto inside.

Ingredients (for two small appetizers):
2 small deep fried tofu pouches (abura-age) for Inari sushi or a rectangular one cut into two.
One package of natto
1 stalk chopped scallion
1 perilla leaf (optional, finely julienned)
Soy sauce and Japanese mustard (or use  packages came with the natto).

Directions:
If using frozen aura-age, thaw and then pour hot water over the tofu pouches to remove any excess oil, pat dry with a paper towel. If not easily opened, roll it with a rolling pin and open the pouch trying not to tear it.

Prepare the natto by mixing with the scallion, soy sauce and mustard. The more you mix the less oder and stickiness it will have. Stuff the pouch with the natto and close the opening using a tooth pick. You could grill this in a toaster oven but this time I cooked it in a frying pan until both sides were nicely browned and the natto was hot.

While it is hot, pour on some soy sauce and serve. This is still natto and may not appeal to everybody but we enjoyed it with cold sake. You need a bit of sake as a chaser after enjoying this dish.

Daikon greens, tofu stir fry 大根葉、豆腐、油揚の炒め物

This is another small dish I made from the daikon greens one evening. This is very simple and quick but a perfect drinking snack.

The amount of ingredients is all arbitrary, but I used enough to make two small servings such as the one seen above.

Daikon greens 大根葉: This was from the same blanched daikon greens I used for several other dishes. I just chopped them up finely to make about 4 tbs.
Tofu 豆腐: I used silken tofu but any tofu will do. I used about 1/4 block. I first wrapped it in a paper towel and microwaved it for about 45 seconds (800KW). This is to remove excess moisture from tofu. I then cut the tofu into small cubes (half an inch).
Abura-age 油揚げ: I thawed a small deep-fried tofu pouch or "koage" 小揚げ in hot water, squeezed out the moisture and halved it and then thinly julienned.
Seasoning: Dark sesame oil (1/2 tbs), soy sauce (1 tsp), mirin (1/2 tsp), sake (1tsp) and Japanese one flavored red pepper flakes ("Ichimi" tougarashi 一味唐辛子).

I placed a small non-stick frying pan on medium flame and put in about 1/2 tbs of dark sesame oil. When the oil got hot I put in the cubes of tofu. I should have kept it moving but I got distracted. As a result, one side stuck to the bottom of the pan (which I eventually worked into the dish by degrazing with sake and mirin). After a few minutes or when the surfaces of the tofu were slightly brown, I added the abura-age and the daikon greens and kept stirring for one more minute. I then added the sake,  mirin and scraped off the whenever brown bits were stuck on the bottom of the pan. I then added the soy sauce and kept stirring until all the liquid was mostly gone. I served the dish in a small bowl and sprinkled with the Japanese tougarashi powder.

This is nothing special but the combination worked well. The subtle but distinctive heat from the Japanese red pepper powder really made this dish perfect with a sip of sake.

Simmered "kiriboshi" daikon 切り干し大根の煮物

"Kiriboshi" daikon is an old fashioned preserved vegetable in which daikon is cut into thin, long strands and dried. I bought a package some time ago in the Japanese grocery store. Obviously I had forgotten about it but found it while I was going through my Japanese food items in the pantry. I decided to make some dishes using this. It is rather odd looking and it doesn't smell particularly pleasant (all cruciferous vegetables appear to have similar smell but drying makes it stronger). The drying, however, does add more sweetness. To use this, wash briefly in cold running water and rehydrate in enough water for 20-30 minutes.

Simmered "kiriboshi" daicon 切り干し大根の煮物

This is a very typical way of using "kiriboshi" daikon. After re-hydration, I squeeze water from it and set aside. I thinly slice carrot and julienne. I also julienne abura-age 油揚げ or deep dried tofu pouch. The amounts are totally arbitrary. You could also add shiitake mushroom (dried and re-hydrated shiitake is the best for this but I did not have enough time to re-hydrate dried shiitake this time). In a pan, I add a small amount of vegetable oil and a dash of dark roasted sesame oil and add few flakes of dried red pepper. I then sauté daikon and carrot. When the oil has coated the each vegetable pieces, add abura-age and enough "dashi" stock to cover (In my case,  I used about 200ml). I place an "otoshi buta" and simmer for 10-15 minutes. "Otoshi buta" 落とし蓋 or "drop lid" is frequently called for in Japanese simmered "nimono" 煮物 recipes. It is a lid (often wood) that is smaller in diameter than that of the pan used. This way, the ingredients will cook evenly while allowing evaporation of the simmering broth. Instead, you could use a kitchen parchment paper cut slightly smaller than the opening of the pan (called "kami buta" or paper lid). You do not need a special wooden lid (I have one but it was too big for this pan). A plate or a regular metal lid smaller in diameter than the pan's opening will do as shown here.

After coming to a boil, simmer for 10-15 minutes. For seasoning, I add 3 tbs of mirin and 2-3 tbs of soy sauce (for 200ml of dashi). I add soy sauce in two increments, tasting each time, to adjust the seasoning. Addition of soy sauce just before completing cooking gives fresh soy sauce flavor as well. If you are having this dish with sake, I use less soy sauce and for rice condiments, I use more soy sauce. Simmer for another 10-15 minutes and cut the flame and let it cool in the broth. I garnished with snow peas blanched, shocked in cold water and then julienned.

"Kiriboshi" daikon and celery in vinegar dressing 切り干し大根のハリハリ

This is another classic way of using this ingredients. "Harihari" is a Japanese word to indicate "crunchy".  Beside dried daikon, this dish usually calls for julienned cucumber. While I was making this, all the mini-cucumbers I had (although I bought them just few days ago) had brownish discoloration around the seeds and did not taste right (This appears not to be the usual brand I get. It said "seed-less" but it definitely had seeds). So after cutting all 5 cucumbers, I had to discard all of them.  Without cucumbers, I rummaged in the refrigerator and found celery. 

After re-hydration, I squeezed out the excess water and put the "kiriboshi daikon" in the bowl. I sliced a celery stalk diagonally and thinly. I mixed a small amount of Chinese red pepper paste "Toubanjan" 豆板醤 (1/5 tsp), sushi vinegar (3 parts)  and mirin (1 part) and dressed.

The kiribishi daikon definitely has a crunch as name "harihari" indicates. It is a very simple (especially if you have a cucumber) and refreshing dish. Even with substituting with celery, it was not so bad.

Simmered “Shirataki” Konjac Noodle and Deep-fried Tofu しらたきと油揚の煮物

A few days ago, we had sukiyaki すき焼き. I thought the whole bag (400 gram or 14.1 oz) of “shirataki” 白滝 (meaning white cascade) or noodle form of konnyaku (or konjac) was too much to use all of it for sukiyaki. So after I preparing it (i.e. washed, boiled, washed again and cut into convenient length) I kept 1/3 in water in the refrigerator. I was pondering how I could use this and came across this recipe on-line and decided to make it. This appears to be Kyoto “o-banzai” おばんざい style home cooking and has nice gentle and comforting flavors.

Ingredients:
1/3 package (about 100 grams) of “shirataki”, washed, boiled, washed again and cut into convenient length
1 small carrot, peeled and julienned
1 abura-age, hot water poured over (to thaw and remove excess oil), water squeezed out and then cut into thin threads
1 scallion finely chopped
300 ml Japanese dashi broth
30 ml sake
15 ml mirin
20 ml soy sauce (I used x4 concentrated Japanese noodle sauce)

Directions:
Add, the shirataki, carrot, and abura-age in a pot add the broth and cook for 5-10 minutes.
Add the seasonings and cook until the liquid is reduced by 1/3.

The original recipe calls for sugar but I did not add it. Japanese noodle sauce does have some sweetness which compensated for not having any sugar. This could be a side dish for rice but it is also perfect for a drinking snack.

Tofu pouch with cheese and nori のりチーズびりから焼き油揚げ

This is a variation on the theme of grilled abura-age or deep fried tofu pouch. I made this dish since I had rather "getting-old" frozen abura-age in the freezer. 

Instead of grilling it in the toaster oven, I fried it in a frying pan. For a change, I sandwiched seasoned nori seaweed and smoked gouda cheese.

Here you can see the first cheese layers covered half way by a seasoned nori seaweed.

I also spread a small amount of Sriracha hot sauce to add some kick. I simply fried both sides in a frying pan with a very small amount of vegetable oil until both side were crispy.

We ate this with a little bit of soy sauce. Sriracha really gave nice zing to this dish.

Hijiki and chicken salad and Stewed Hijiki ひじきと鶏肉のサラダ、ひじきの煮物

Hijiki ひじき is one of the several "kaiso" 海藻 or sea vegetables (sounds better than "seaweed") which has been a part of Japanese cuisine for a long time. Japanese consider hijiki to be a healthy food with high fibers and minerals. As I was growning up, we had hijiki occasionally, but it was, by no means, my favorite dish as a kid. It does make a nice small dish for a drink, however, and as such, I like hijiki now. (Regarding arsenic contained in Hijiki, please refer to the footnote.)

Hijiki comes dried and usually has two different kinds; "Me-hijiki" 芽ひじき consisting of the buds or tips of hijiki, and "Naga-hijiki" 長ひじき consisting of the stalks of hijiki. I happened to get dried "Naga-hijiki" and decided to make two dishes. In dried form, hijiki is very hard and black like tangles of black metal wires. To prepare, after washing in cold running water in a colander, I soak it in large amount of cold water initially for 30 minutes. At the end of the 30 minutes, the volume of hijiki increases something like 10 fold and you can see the dark brown shapes of the original hijiki plant with the fresh smell of the ocean. I drain and wash in cold running water in a colander.  I then soak again in fresh water. I repeat this several times over the period of about 2 hours (you do not really need this long soak and changes of water but I like to leach out as much of the small amount of arsenic as possible, see the footnote). If I am not ready to cook this immediately I keep it in a container with water and place it in the refrigerator.

1. Hijiki and chicken salad ひじきと鶏肉のサラダ

Since I had some leftover cooked (barbecued) whole chicken, I used the breast meat for this dish. If you are making this from scratch, you should either steam in sake or "sakamushi*" 酒蒸し or microwave the chicken breasts.

*add 2-3 tbs of sake in a small frying pan and add a chicken breast (skin removed). Put on a tight fitting lid and braise/steam for 4-5 minutes or until the chicken is done in a low flame.

In a small frying pan, add olive oil with a dash of dark roasted sesame oil. When the oil is hot, add a desired amount of hydrated and drained hijiki and saute for 1-2 minutes and then add coarsely shredded (by hand) cooked chicken breast and saute for aother minute and season with salt and pepper.  Tip them out in a bowl and add soy sauce with dissolved yuzukosho 柚子胡椒 (from the tube) or wasabi. You could also use ponzu (soy sauce) ポン酢醤油 with or without the spicy stuff. Here, I made a half and half mixture of soy sauce and yuzukosho and added the mixture in several increments as I tasted it to my liking. I garnished it with cooked and shelled edamame. I serve this at a room temperature. This is a good dish. Mild zing and flavors of the yuzukosho is very nice.

2. Stewed Hijiki ひじきの煮物

This is as classic as hijiki dishes go. There are many variations to this. Some add cooked (yellow or ripe) soy beans "mizuni daizu" 水煮大豆 and other vegetables. Carrot and deep-fried tofu pouch "abura-age" 油揚げ are most common ingredients in this dish. I used carrot, sweet potato, edamame  枝豆 and deep fried tofu pouch in mine.

I made a large batch with the remaining prepared hijiki which is about 3 cups after hydration. I added broth (I used granulated instant "dashi" dissolved in water) (1 cup) add small cubes of carrot (one large) and sweet potato (1/2 large) and simmered for 10 minutes or until vegetables were cooked (not too soft) and set it aside in a bowl with the liquid. I added peanut oil (1tbs) with a dash of dark sesame oil in a sauce pan on a medium flame and saute the prepared hijiki and thin strips of abura-age (2 small squares or "koage" 小揚げ, blanched, squeezed of water and cut into thin strips) for 1-2 minutes and add the cooked vegetables with its liquid. Simmer for 5 minutes and I season it with sake, mirin and soy sauce (1:1:2 parts), I will go easy on soy sauce at first since it will cook until the liquid is almost all gone. I taste when the dish is almost done and add more soy sauce if needed (I did not). After turning off the heat, I mixed in cooked and shelled edamame and let it sit and come to the room temperature before serving. This has a classic taste of hijiki "nimono" dish.  I found  old "ichi-go Masu" 一合升 in the back of the kitchen cabinet and used it to serve this dish.

We had both hijiki dishes at one sitting. Both dishes are quite different in taste and texture (although it may look similar) and went well with cold sake.

*Footnote regrading arsenic in Hijiki:

I did not know this until I read Hiroyuki's blog some time ago. It appears that the amount of inorganic arsenic is not high enough to have a serous health concern if you consume hijiki in moderation (meaning not eat tons of hijiki everyday). There is no known case of arsenic health effects even in Japan where people tend to eat more seaweed than anywhere else including hijiki. It is also reported that If you soak hijiki for 1 hour and if you boil it for 5 minutes after hydration, . This time, I soaked much longer than needed with multiple changes of water which, I am surmising, reasonably reduced the arsenic content. So it appears that consuming hijiki cooked this way is not to be of any health concern. A (professional) well-informed Japanese food blogger appears to take a similar position.

Matsutake 松茸

We got a shipment of North American Matsutake from Oregon mushrooms the last week of September. Among the North American matsutake, the ones from Mexico are the most similar to the ones in Japan but, for us, the ones from Oregon are a good balance between flavor and price. I have posted many matsutake dishes previous so  this time I just made one composite post to signify the fall season.

Unlike Japanese matsutake, these Oregon matsutake are covered with dirt which is difficult to remove using just wet paper towels. So, I usually end up scraping the surface of the mushroom with a sharp paring knife. It is the pretty unpleasant to bite into grit either sand or dirt while eating matsutake.

We started with a few small dishes before we delved into feasting on the matsutake this evening. As shown below we had stir fried cabbage with abura-age similar to stir fried beef and cabbage I post before. I served this with spicy marinated tofu but instead of baking the tofu as I did previously, I cooked it in a frying pan. I first browned the pieces without sauce and then poured in the sauce and cook until the sauce was reduced. We found this is much better preparation than when they are baked. The tofu maintains its moisture with nice "piri-kara" spicy hot and salty flavor. I served this after a brief microwaving.

The cabbage dish is classic Japanese home cooking. Instead of meat, deep dried tofu pouch or abura-age is used cut into small strips and sauteed with vegetable oil and a splash of dark sesame oil and red pepper flakes. I then braised it in mirin and soy sauce. I garnished it with blanched broccoli.

The second small dish was made from something I usually discard. In preparation for making the matsutake dishes, I made a broth from kelp and dried bonito flakes (katsuo-bushi). I made two kinds of broths; Ichi-ban (#1) dashi and ni-ban (#2) dashi (一番だし、２番だし)*.  I decided to make the leftover spent kelp and bonito flakes to a dish by braising  them in mirin and soy sauce until the moisture was almost all gone. This is a type of "Tsukudani" 佃煮. Although these items were "spent" by making broth, they are still full of "umami". My wife was pleasantly surprised this dish went well with the Napa Cab we were drinking.

* #1 broth: After simmering the kelp for 10 minutes in water, I added dried bonito flakes and let it simmer for 30 seconds then cut the flame. I let it steep for another 5 minutes and then strained it without pressing. #2 broth: I put the kelp and the bonito used to make #1 broth back into the pan and added water. I let this mixture simmer for 30 minutes and then strained it. #1 dashi is the premier extraction of dashi flavors. The best analogy would be to say it is like cold pressed extra virgin olive oil while #2 dashi is like second press with heat light olive oil. #1 dashi is best used in clear soups or chawan-mushi and #2 broth is good for simmered dishes.

This is the first matsutake dish of the evening. I made matsutake touban-yaki. This time I did not add sake to steam it.

Even off the flame, the touban or ceramic disc retained heat. Upon opening the dome, the subtle but rather distinct aroma of matsutake wafted up. The steam rising from it is just visible in the picture below. We simply enjoyed this with lime (in leu of "kabosu" カボス) and Kosher salt. Of course we switched to cold sake at this point. Since we were drinking sake from Yamagata, we used "Tsugaru-nuri" sake cups we got from the Aomori prefecture (both are northern prefectures in the mainland).

The second matsutake dish I made was chawanmushi. Since I did not have any special ingredients, I made this with what I had on hand. I put in some shrimp (thawed, shelled, deveined, and cut  into small chunks), ginko nuts (from a can), and boiled North American chestnuts I had prepared previously. On the top were slices of matsutake, hana-fu 花麩 (decorative gluten cake, hydrated), the green part of scallion and yuzu skin (frozen).

Although there is a good amount of matsutake is in this dish, it is difficult to see in the picture. This is another of our favorite ways of enjoying matsutake. The egg custard was silky smooth. (I used #1 dashi broth for this dish seasoned with mirin, light colored soy sauce and salt).

At this point, we were getting filled up, so I skipped the matsutake clear soup 松茸のも吸い物  I had planned and went to the last dish of matsutake rice  松茸御飯. As usual, I used the "Kamado-san" かまどさん donabe 土鍋 rice cooker. I used a mixture of #1 and #2 broth, lightly seasoned with sake and light colored soy sauce. I also added small pieces of kelp.

This time I did not intentionally make browned crust or "okoge" おこげ to maintain the delicate flavor of the matustake. The rice developed a very nice sheen. 

I ate my serving as is; enjoying the subtle flavor and aroma of the matsutake and rice. But when I wasn't looking my wife added pats of butter to hers. (She confessed it was sublime)

The sake we had was called "kudoki jouzu" or pick-up artist, Junmai Ginjou くどき上手  純米吟醸 from Kamenoi shuzou 亀の井酒造 in Yamagata prefecture 山形県. Yamagata has many good sake breweries including "Juyondai sake" 十四代 of Takagi shuzou  高木酒造. This is made from 美山錦 miyama-nishiki which is the sake rice adapted to colder climate as I understand it. This is a nice clean sake with crisp acidity and the floral quality of Daiginjou. Ture sake website describes this sake as follows; "Great name and a great nose on this sake with hints of pear, apple, and purple plum aromas. Ahhhhh! A brew that gets it. A terrific feeling sake that fills the mouth with fat and gooey flavors but stays super smooth. The brilliant acidity-balancing act takes the sweetness out of the gambit of fruit flavors including pineapple and mango. Plump and complex this "sexy beast" is layered and luxurious with attitude and swagger. Drink closer to room temp if you want even more fruit tones, but chilled is happening." which we agree for the most part. We enjoyed matsutake this evening. Only regret I have is that I could not arrange to have some nice sashimi with this.