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.

“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.

Happy New Year 2023 新年おめでとう御座います2023

It is morning of the first day of 2023. The past year was marked by many events; not the least of which is the still lingering COVID-19. In any case, here is the “Kagami-mochi” 鏡餅 New Year’s decoration. It is  accompanied by various rabbit figurines because this is the year of the rabbit according to the Chinese zodiac. We usually place the new year’s decoration in the tokonoma 床間 alcove  of  our “tearoom” in the basement but this year, we decided to place it in the room where we spend most of our time to maximize our enjoyment of the collection.

As usual, the highlight of our new year is the Sushi taro osechi box 寿司太郎お節箱. We drove down to Dupont circle and picked up the Osechi box and hand-cut soba noodles “toshikoshi soba” 年越しそば (which we usually enjoy the 2nd day of the new year). For many years, we traditionally have our regular breakfast of Cafe Latte with yogurt and breads and have the New Year’s “Ozouni” お雑煮 soup for lunch. I also served a few items I made. As always, we wheeled out the real Japanese laquer ware bowls my mother gave us a long time ago.

As usual, we encased the mochi in a fried tofu pouch or “abura-age” 油揚げ (in an effort to make the eating experience a bit more manageable). It is at the bottom of the bowl so you can’t see it in the picture. I cut the carrot into a flower-shape and the daikon into a ginko leaf-shape. I also added burdock root ごぼう (the white rectangular object in the picture), shiitake mushroom, shrimp, flower-shape gluten cakes or “fu” 麩, snow pea, scallion and yuzu zest (frozen). I made the broth from dashi packs, a bit of mirin and x4 Japanese noodle sauce.

The accompanying dishes (from left to right) are all listed in “Norio’s New year dishes”. They are: chicken squares with gorgonzola cheese and dried fig, salmon kelp roll 鮭の昆布巻き, datemaki omelet 伊達巻, and salmon Russian marinade. (This year I made some modifications to the marinade by adding Dijon mustard and dill). Of course it wouldn’t be an adequate celebration of the first day of the New Year without at least a token glass of sake. This year it was our house favorite Tengumai Daiginjo 天狗舞大吟醸. The soup and these items were pretty good if I do say so myself.

Although we did not tap into the osechi box, here is a preview of what to expect when we eagerly dive in this evening. The picture below shows the first tier. Although many goodies are hidden below the items we can see, we can spot our favorites like “karasumi” 唐墨,  “mushi uni” 蒸し雲丹 and “Kazunoko” 数の子.

The second tier also has our favorites such as “Ankimo tofu”, “Ikura” and duck breast.

We are repeating ourselves but it is so wonderful that we are able to get this incredible osechi from Sushi Taro. We will be enjoying these delicacies over the next few days.

Lox and Ikura "donburi" bowl 燻製鮭ロックスとイクラ丼

After making Philly rolls, I used the left over lox from Vital Choice to make a donburi for lunch.  I made the lunch in the form of a Japanese meal set or "teishoku" 定食. I served the lox/ikura donburi with miso soup made with wakame ワカメ, abura-age 油揚げ and scallion as well as cucumber asazuke 胡瓜の浅漬け

I made sushi rice from the rice we cooked a night before. I microwaved the rice first. I also warmed up sushi vinegar in the microwave and mixed them together in a warmed bowl and let it stand for a few minutes covered. I placed the sushi rice in the bottom of the small bowl. Besides the lox, I topped the bowl with scrambled egg, salmon salad (in the center), cucumber and wakame with sumiso dressing ワカメと胡瓜の酢味噌あえ (leftover), "ikura" イクラ salmon roe and garnished with thin strips of nori or "Kizami-nori" 刻み海苔.

The main ingredient "lox" is mostly hidden so I dug it out for the picture (below).

So this was quite a luxurious lunch and we were good and did not succumb to having sake with it and just enjoyed this salmon "oya-ko*" donburi 鮭の親子丼.

*”Oya-ko” means parent and offspring. The classic of this type of donburi bowl is chicken meat and egg on rice. The combination of smoked salmon (lox) and salmon roe could be also considered “Oya-ko” donburi. 

Cabbage stir fried Japanese style 日本風キャベツと油揚の炒め物

This is a simple Japanese family-style cabbage dish which my mother used to make. I thought I must have posted this before but obviously I did not. When we celebrated St. Patrick’s day this year we had a sort of Irish dinner with Shepherd pie, Irish soda bread, and I contributed this cabbage dish to complete the meal. This is a vegetarian dish since instead of meat, deep fried tofu or “abura-autge” 油揚げ is used. I also added onion but it was most likely not included in the original recipe. The seasoning is a typical Japanese one; soy sauce and mirin. This can be a drinking snack or accompaniment for rice (in that case, more soy sauce is called for). 

 I made. this with the center portion of cabbage I had left in the refrigerator. Since I was trying to use up the last of the cabbage, I made a bit more than I intended.

Ingredients: (The amount of the ingredients are arbitrary)
Cabbage, thinly sliced, soaked in water for 10 minutes and then moisture removed in a salad spinner (#1).
Deep fried tofu (abura-age), rinsed in hot water to remove excess oil, cut in half and sliced into thin strips (#2).
Onion, cut in half and thinly sliced (#3).
Vegetable oil with a dash or dark sesame oil for stir flying (#4)
Soy sauce and mirin as seasoning.

Directions:
Add the oil to a wok on medium-high flame
Stir fry the onion for a few minuets and then add the cabbage and continue cooking or few more minutes or until the cabbage softens.
Add the mirin and then soy sauce. Add the seasoning to taste.

This is a nice side dish and a nostalgic reminder from my childhood. 

Happy New Year 2022 明けましておめでとう 2022.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2-3 tsp neutral oil

Onion slices, optional

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

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

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

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

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

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

Happy New Year 2021 あけましておめでとう2021

The year 2020 was a quite taxing year. We hope things will get better in 2021, although we are, by no means, out of woods. Because of Covid, we stopped going to our Japanese grocery store (or many other stores for that matter). Having home delivery was a God-send. Nonetheless, however, we were not able to get all of our usual New Year food items or decorations including "Kagami-mochi" 鏡餅. (There may be a silver lining in this since we almost never eat all the small round mochi contained in it). So, this year our New Year's display was absent the Kagami-mochi. We only displayed the zodiac animal figurines representing the year--which in this case was the Ox.  The pictures below show our collection of zodiac oxen. The smallest guy, in front, looks like a holstein cow and is made of painted wood. The one standing behind and looking at him is made from "do-rei" 土鈴 or earthenware and is actually a bell.

The largest one is a red ox made of a paper mache with a bobbing head. He sports a yellow sticker stating "Ushi" or ox in kanji letter 丑. This kanji letter, as far as I know, is used only referring to the ox zodiac year and, come to think of it, it was also an old (edo-era) designation of time representing 2-3 AM. In addition, the sticker saids "invite happiness" 招福 and "open good luck" 開運. The gold letter on the back of the figurine shows the kanji character indicating "festivity" or "celebratory" 壽. This is an awesome red ox perfect for the New Year.

We generally start our New Year's day with our usual breakfast of coffee and bread. (Morning is far too early to deal with sticky rice mochi and its inherent potential choking factor).  So, we have our year's "ozouni" お雑煮 soup, including its customary ingredient mochi, as a lunch. This year, since I already had it, I made the soup using duck breast instead of the customary chicken. 

As usual, I encased the mochi in a deep fried tofu or "abura-age" 油揚げ pouch (which was boiled in the soup broth and cut into three pieces just before serving for my wife's convenience--to make it easier for her to eat). Other items in the soup included shrimp, snow pea, daikon, carrot, shiitake mushroom, boiled spinach, cooked freeze dried tofu or  "Kouya-doufu" 高野豆腐. I also included chopped scallion, yuzu zest and cooked seasoned kelp ,which was by product from when I made salmon kelp rolls　鮭の昆布巻き. I made the broth using a special dashi pack and concentrated white dashi from the rice factory ニューヨーク精米所. I also added light colored soy sauce and mirin.

As side dishes I served salmon kelp roll, Russian marinated salmon, date-maki 伊達巻 and new year omelet.

Another side was daikon namasu 大根なます,  with thinly sliced boiled octopus leg たこ and Ikura いくら salmon roe (The ikura and octopus leg are from Catalina offshore products).

Although this was a lunch, no New Year's celebration would be complete without a libation in the form of a glass of Sake for good luck (or whatever other reason we can think of). This was a nice mellow start of the New Year. Upcoming tonight, we are busting into Sushi Taro Osechi box 寿司太郎の御節!

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.

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.

Warm sake and oden on a cold winter's evening 厳寒の冬の夕燗酒とおでん

Since we had some very cold wintery days recently, we enjoyed warm sake several times. One such evening, we had the Japanese classic of hot sake with oden. After I found Hakushika junmai and junmai ginjo 白鹿純米、純米吟醸 (sake in a box) at our Japanese grocery store, these have become our favorite sake served warm or "kanzake" 燗酒. The sake sold this way is usually not the best sake but is still good quality as is the case with these two. Also sake sold in a box costs significantly less than the same sake sold in a bottle. For these reasons, we think these are a good buy. (Other packaging variations may include "cup-sake" or "sake-in-a-can". Cup-sake could be even daiginjo class).

Of course on a cold winter evenings, warm sake is best paired with either oden おでん or nabe 鍋dishes. This time, I made oden. Usually boiled eggs in oden end up hardboiled even if they are soft boiled when put in the broth. So this time I made soft boiled eggs with runny yolks which I kept separate from the rest of the oden, then just 5 minutes before serving I warmed them in the broth.  I put mochi in the deep fried tofu pouches or "abura-age" 油揚げ. Instead of regular potato I used "sato imo" 里芋 or taro.

Although the eggs did not absorb the broth's flavor, the runny yolks were nice for a change. The cylindrical item is fish cake stuffed with burdock root or "Kobo-ten" ごぼう天.  The rest of the items were tofu, shitake mushroom, blanched broccoli and carrot.

On a cold winter evening, this is very warming and comforting.

Happy New Year 2020 明けましておめでとうございます

Happy New Year 2020 which is also the end and beginning of a decade. 2019 was not a year we would like to repeat. Hope 2020 is a bit less "eventful". We started New Year 2020 as we would any other New Year. I put up the new "Kagami-mochi" 鏡餅 decoration in our Japanese "tea" room alcove or "Tokonoma" 床間 and displayed the zodiac mouse figurines子の年 from our collection of zodiac figures.

The largest mouse appears to be dressed in ”Kannushi" 神主 shinto priest attire. I am not sure what the smaller one is up to. It seems to be carrying a pouch and has on a backpack. (On closer inspection, this guy appears to be carrying a "Kome-dawara" 米俵; a traditional old fashioned woven-straw sac containing rice, no doubt a symbol of prosperity). It's cute.

We also displayed a small carved wooden mouse figure shown below which was not as anthropomorphized as the other two--he just looks cutely "mouse-ish".

Since we cannot start the day, even the first day of the year, without coffee, we gave up having a new year's "ozoni soup" お雑煮 for breakfast, instead, we had "ozoni" soup as a lunch as shown below. Not shown below, it was accompanied with a symbolic small cup of sake.

Nothing is  different from any other year but this year, I got fresh "mitsuba" 三つ葉. As usual, our mochi 餅 is wrapped in "abura-age" 油揚げ deep fried tofu pouch for easier handing/eating (especially for my wife).

I tried not to serve too much of food to make sure we can "adequately" hit the Sushitaro osechi box 寿司太郎のおせち重箱 and other goodies in the evening. All of the below are what I made. Two squares are "matsukaze yaki" 松風焼き (miso and pine nuts) and its variation (fig and bleu-cheese). I also served "kobu-maki" 昆布巻 kelp roll which was made from kelp and kanpyo 干瓢 "dried gourd peel") that were left over from when I made salmon kelp rolls 鮭昆布巻. I also made "datemaki" 伊達巻.

To help digestion (my father used to say "daikon" helps digestion), I also served  daikon namasu 大根なます topped with boiled octopus leg and ikura salmon "roe". This roe came from an Alaskan company. which we used for the first time. The ikura is much smaller than the ikura we usually get--it actually looks a bit more like trout roe but tasted the same as salmon roe.

So, this was how we started 2020 and more to come in the evening.